Since the pandemic DIY craft projects have become more popular, especially during the holidays as there are endless creative ways to create your own decorations. With quite a few nations going through a Living crisis, many people are looking to have a Christmas on a budget but with it also remaining festively special.
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I decided I wanted to try make my own Christmas decorations this year and in particular I was fond of trying my hand at making Christmas shadow boxes. If you’re not sure what a Christmas shadow box is you can see my post here along with inspirations I drew my ideas from.
In this post I will show the process of making Christmas shadow boxes and how you can too on a budget. You can use things you find around the house or inexpensive at craft or Dollar/Pound stores.
Lets dive in!
How to decorative Christmas Shadow boxes
Here are the finished shadow boxes I made with different scenes, below I will show you how I made them with fast and easy crafts and are totally beginner friendly.
What you need.
Materials used:
Living Shadow Box Scene
- Bauble charms
- Acrylic paint
- Resin figures
- Lid of a small box
- Small Canvas
- Popsicle sticks 2 different sizes
- Mini Wreath decoration
- Mini Tree Decoration
- Fairy lights or light up or Christmas Necklace
- String
- Dry Floral Foam Brick
- Traditional Christmas Mix Design Pad or wrapping paper
Light up Outdoor Scene
- Artificial Snow
- Resin Figures
- Christmas Mix Design Pad or wrapping paper
- Mini Christmas Tree Decoration
- Led Fairy Lights
- Deep Frame
Tools used:
Method to make living room shadow box
– Choose a background for your shadow box. Use the cardboard/paper/plastic/glass part in the deep frame to draw around on desired paper background. Use craft knife or scissors to cut out background shape and glue onto background piece.
How to make the flooring
-Cut the popsicle stick rounded ends off
-Start placing sticks into bottom of the box seeing how you want them to be laid out and cut each stick down to appropriate size so they fit into box but also so that they make wooden flooring style style
-Glue Sticks down with glue gun (You can paint the sticks before or after you have glued them down)
-When you have the amount of sticks you need and cut down to the correct sizes. Decide what colour you want to paint them.
(For me I had a selection of 3 brown colours. I painted a few popsicle sticks and let them dry, then I decided which colour would look best)
– I also added a small rug using a piece of scrap material I had (see below)
To make the fireplace
-Use one larger Popsicle stick and two smaller ones with lid of small cardboard box
-Measure out the correct size so it fits around box in a fireplace mantlepiece style
Use craft knife or scissors to cut them to size
-Glue them into place and stick toegether
-Allow to dry
-Paint desired colour
-Can add decorations to the fireplace once painted. I added this decorative stocking pieces.
To make the centre piece picture
-Paint your mini Canvas piece with any colour. I added small wooden decorative pieces (that I also painted) and also added painted popsicle sticks around the boarder for a frame.
To make the Christmas tree decorations and hanging baubles.
-Using a glue gun, glue baubles onto mini tree and green piece of string to the desired length.
-I later found a light up party necklace but had already glued my bauble decorations in. But you can use that as a light up decoration.
How to make mini presents
-With the dry foam cut with craft knife to the desired cube sizes
-Measure the size of wrapping paper to use that fits around cubes
-Use glue or cellotape to hold wrapping paper around cube
-Can use Ribbon to wrap around present
Adding and customising figures to the box
-I couldn’t find a sofa chair to put into my scene but I did find this mini resin chair figure from the dollar/pound store. I didn’t like the colours so I painting it the colour I wanted.
-You can also add Christmas decoration figures you already have (if they fit) or find other resin figures, they are many Christmas themed figures around during the festive season.
How to make outdoor light up shadow box scene
I have been wanting to make a light up shadow box for a while. I love how other people have incorporated lights into their shadow boxes, so I thought I’d give it a go.
-Cut out background you would light to use for your shadow box. Trace around deep frame inside paper and cut it out. I used a outdoor snow scene from the Christmas mix pad I got from the craft store.
-To make the holes for the lighting to show through, I used a pyrography tool to burn through the back of the deep frame. I marked where I wanted the lights show through. As I wanted them to represent stars I made sure the holes were not going through the trees in the background.
Adding The artificial snow
-I used artificial snow I found in the craft store.
-Using the glue gun put glue across the bottom of the shadow box
-Sprinkle snow on top. Add more glue if needed and add more snow until you get the amount needed.
Add figures to the shadow box
-Choose figures you want to use and glue into place
Adding the lights to shadow box
-You can use any type of fairy lights. I wanted to use ones on a wire so they stick down on the flat surface however I could not find any and I already had these cool toned ones. Using them the way I did will make the lights stick out at the back so it can’t go flat against a wall. If you would like it to go against a flat surface you can attach the lights another way to make this possible.
Are you going to be making any shadow boxes this year? Also if you have any tips to add or questions let me know in the comment section below.
Lissy xoxo
Introvert in Wonderland 