Monday, April 18, 2016

Paper Flowers Shadow Box


I love old books and paper so I thought this project would be great to use up some books I've saved. Confession... I have a huge stack of books I've been saving for something like this and I'm sure I will never use all of my "craft paper" collection.

Yay! Raggedy books!
Supplies:

1 shadow box (I bought mine from Ikea)
1 piece of scrapbook paper
Old books
Hot glue gun
Brads - optional (I bought mine from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies)
Thin silver wire - optional (I found mine in a piece of ribbon in a draw of old wedding decorations and thought, "Perfect! This is just what it need!")



1. Cut out a piece of scrapbook paper to the size of the shadow box. This will be the background in the shadow box and what you attach your flowers to. I picked a bright blue(which isn't showing up well in this picture, but looks great in real life!)

2. To make the flowers, cut out a circle. Cut a spiral in the circle, ending in the middle. 

3. Take the outside end and roll till you make it to the inside. Add a dab of glue inside the bottom to secure it. Hot glue works best since it sets fast. For another video tutorial, click here.
Just 40 more to go!

I wanted to add a bit more to the box by making a couple of origami butterflies. I followed this tutorial here, but there are many more to choose from.

4. Arrange the flowers in the box and glue them down. I added some jeweled brads to the middle of some of the flowers(before gluing them down). You could add more or less flowers, depending on the look you want. I wanted to be able to see some of the background colour.

5. If you made a butterfly, you could also make some antennae for them. I took a piece of ribbon that had wire in it and cut the wire out. Then I curled it and glued to the butterfly. I also distressed my butterflies by rubbing the edges on some black and brown ink pads.



I'm entering my shadow box into these challanges:



26 comments:

  1. Love your shadow box, it says vintage all the way with your lovely old papers. Really like the way you added the butterflies. Thanks so much for traveling with us at A Vintage Journey.

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  2. this is such a freakin cool project!!! thanks for playing along with us at Emerald Creek Dares!!!

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  3. Oh my goodness Janell. You need to be out here way more. This is so Awesome!

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    1. Ooops. I was so excited by the project I forgot to change the commentor to Kim Evans. :)

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  4. Janell, I am loving your fab creation !! Great work !

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  5. This really is a work of art...I love it it,those butterflies are stunning...
    Thank you for joining in with our challenge over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit...x

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  6. So, so cool! I share your habit of covering and hoarding old books and paper... Isn't it so satisfying to use it?! This is an awesome project, and thanks for the time you took-- I appreciate your organized blog :)

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  7. What a fabulous creation Janell, love your rolled book paper flowers and the origami butterflies are wonderful! Thank you so much for joining us at A Vintage Journey, Deb xo

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  8. Fabulous ..lived the butterflies more !!Thank you for playing along with us @ Decorate to Celebrate Challenge !!
    DT

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  9. When do I get one?? Lol. Not sure if I like this better or your door decoration!!

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  10. What a beautiful way to upcycle old books!Thank you so for joining us at HLS Mixed Media Challenge. Hope to see you again soon!

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  11. What a gorgeous shadow box! LOVE those butterflies. Thanks for playing along this month at Happy Little Stampers! :)

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  12. What a wonderful shadow box filled with beautiful rolled flowers and fluttering butterflies! Great use of old book pages - and lovely project for the AVJ spring challenge! Julia xx

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