Hearts Shadow Box

by Tricia Miller afdish@beyondbb.com

Original design that was inspired by home décor item I saw at Walmart

PAPER: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Quatrefancy Specialty DSP, Glossy White CS; MISC: Gingham Garden and Epic Day washi tape, Hearts a Flutter Framelits, Bitty Butterfly punch, Basic Pearls, hole punch

Supplies:

1. Cut Smoky Slate CS - (1) 4” x 4” - (1) 6” x 6” 2. Make light pencil line on 4 x 4

piece to mark center line in both directions

3. On 6x6 piece, cut out heart shapes using heart framelit (how I determined placement is detailed in the notes)

4. Score 6x6 piece

- with SHIM, score 3/8” on all four sides

- without shim, score 1” on all four sides

5. Cut tabs as shown

6. Place sticky strip as shown (front side of paper is up, with scoring valleys showing; folds will be away from valley, towards mountain)

7. Cut glossy CS - (1) 3-7/8” x 3-7/8” - (2) 3-7/8” x 1/2” - (2) 3” x 1/2” (this is optional; I discovered that due to the small size of the openings the inside was pretty dark, so I figured that lining the gray CS box with bright shiny white glossy CS would lighten it up a bit by giving whatever light did make it inside a surface the would reflect instead of absorb)

8. Center glossy CS square on back of 6x6 panel with shiny side showing

9. Flip it over and trace the hearts (make sure you are writing on the matte side)

10. Make small arrow at the top, then make same arrow on shiny side (this helps make sure you know which way to position piece once it is punched)

11. Using 1-1/4” circle punch center the heart and punch out all four

12. Cut 1-9/16” x 1-9/16” squares from the following - (1) Whisper White CS - (1) Melon Mambo CS - (1) Pear Pizzazz CS - (1) patterned window sheet from Quatrefancy DSP - (1) Island Indigo pattern from Quatrefancy DSP

- Also, cut (1) 1-1/2” x 1-1/2” from Whisper White CS

12. Cut hanger piece using framelit, punch, score 1/4” from bottom edge, and place sticky strip on valley side

13. Punch out bitty butterfly from Daffodil Delight CS, add three med pearls, adhere to Pear Pizzazz square using 1/2 dimensional (placement was determined by dry fitting the square to the 4x4 and with the 6x6 piece in box form to ensure the butterfly is visible through the heart window)

14. Adhere patterned window sheet square to melon mambo square using glue dots

15. Adhere Island Indigo DSP square to the smaller Whisper White square (to make it a little more stiff)

16. Adhere strips of washi tape to Whisper White CS base, trim off excess

17. with dimensionals adhere squares to 4x4 panel using the pencil lines as a guide

18. Fold and crease all scores

19. Adhere glossy CS pieces to backside of 6x6 panel as shown, ensuring shiny side is showing

20. Adhere corners to assemble top box piece

21. Adhere front box piece and back panel piece together - Dry fit to ensure you have both pieces oriented properly - adhere one edge while aligning all edges - then adhere three remaining edges while ensuring alignment

22. Attach hanger piece to back, centered and flush to top edge

DONE!

How I built the placement template: I cut 4 hearts. I cut a 4x4 piece and marked the quadrants evenly. When I place the hearts on, I decided they didn’t look quite right, so I moved the lines 1/8” in towards center in both directions. Now, after positioning the hearts using these lines they looked good so I glued them in place. Then I created a mock 6x6 panel and glued the 4x4 panel to it’s center. Thanks to my upline, who loaned me the heart framelit from her Hearts a Flutter set, I had 2 heart framelits to work with, enabling me to run each piece through the bigshot 2 times instead of 4 times. It also allowed me to place the 2 framelits onto the bigshot plate in one row, then use guides to align the paper for each pass. I placed two-way glue on the flat part of the framlits and let it dry. Using the template, I nestled the framelits over the upper 2 hearts with the cutting edge down, and place the bigshot plate over this keeping the edge of the plate even along one edge of the template and pushed down to adhere the framelits to the bigshot plate. Next I used dotto to adhere a scrap piece of cardstock to the plate against the bottom edge of the template. The arrow is to remind myself that the paper should align the that side of the plate within about 1/8 inch. Now, I ran all the 6x6 panels through the bigshot using the guides to line them up.

Then I placed the template back onto the plate, this time nestling the lower hearts into the framelits, and I would have moved the scrap piece of paper to rest against the bottom edge, but as luck would have it (honestly it was complete luck and not planned in any way) the top edge of the template lined up flush with the top edge of the plate. So I positioned the top edge of the 6x6 panels flush with the top edge of the place and even with the right edge about 1/8” from the edge, and ran them through the bigshot.

TA-DA! 4 evenly spaced hearts cut

Shim for Simply Scored: Use of the Simply Scored shim in this project allows you to create long side tabs with perfect width for placement of sticky strip. I discovered that 1/4” score was too narrow and 3/8” was too wide. I wanted just enough room for the sticky strip and while keeping the long tabs as narrow as possible. The solution was to use the shim and score at 3/8”, which caused the score to be to somewhere between 1/4” and 3/8”, and making it the perfect width for sticky strip. When you score the cardstock using the shim, it causes the score line to be slid a smidge towards the edge. Shim is also useful for making boxes with lids easy. Cut 2 pieces of cardstock same size. Score the lid with the shim and the box without. Once assembled, the lid should slide nicely over the box. If you want instructions for making the shim, please email me at afdish@beyondbb.com