CCC 2024 Day 15: Christmas Monogram Shadow Box

Step 2) Size the shadow box design

If you are making this project to fit a specific frame then you’ll need to measure the frame to find out what size to cut the SVG at.

Open up your frame and measure the back of it to find out what size to cut the design out at.

I measured the back of my frame and it came to 6.5 inches.

Click the design on your canvas and use the width/height boxes near the top of the screen to make it the size that you want to cut.

TIP: Make sure the padlock icon above the width/height boxes is CLOSED before you resize. If it appears “open”, click it with your mouse to close it.

Step 3) Add a name to the strip

Click “Text” and type out your chosen name in capital letters (e.g. SARAH).

Type “Stencil” into the font drop down so that it will filter to only show the stencil fonts.

A stencil font is one that has little gaps in the letters which means when you cut it, you won’t lose any of the middles of letters such as A’s and E’s etc.

I’ve chosen a Cricut Access font called “BFC Homemade Stencil”. I like this font because it’s got nice thick, curvy edges which fits the shadow box design nicely.

Resize the name and move it on top of the horizontal strip. Position it so that it is roughly in the middle of the strip, with an even gap at the top and bottom.

Click the shadow box design and press “Ungroup” at the top of the layers panel to separate out the layers.

Click the top layer (the creamy coloured one) to select it.

Press shift on your keyboard so that you can also select the text and then click “Align > Center Horizontally” to get your text perfectly in the middle.

With both of the layers still selected, press “Combine > Subtract” to cut the text out of the layer below.

You should now be able to see a grey colour through the name, which is the layer underneath the cream coloured one.

Step 4) Add an initial to the back of the design

Hide the top two layers as we will be working with the layers below for this next part of the tutorial. To do this, hover your mouse over those layers in the layers panel and click the eye icon that appears.

Use the Text tool to type out the first letter of the name you just added, again using a capital letter.

You can use the same font if you’d like to but if it has the slits in the letter it might not look quite right so I chose a non stencil font for my letter.

I used the Cricut Access font “BFC Love Notes” for my letter.

Change the colour of your letter so that it’s easy to see whilst we work on it.

Turn the top two layers back on so that you can check the positioning of where the letter will go.

Drag the letter down in the layers panel so that it’s underneath the top two layers.

Now you can see if you’re happy with how it’s looking. You may want to resize or reposition it.

When you’re happy with how it’s looking, hide the top two layers again.

To make sure your letter is in the center, select the grey layer and the letter and press “Align> Center Horizontally”.

There are two ways that you could do the next part. You could cut the large letter out all on its own and then glue it on in the middle of your papercraft design.

The problem with this technique is that you don’t have the shape of the letter on all of the pieces underneath which might make it difficult to get depth and dimension when it comes to adding your foam squares.

A better way to do it is to join the shape of the letter to the pieces underneath.

We will need 3 copies of the letter to join to the layers underneath. Duplicate the letter twice, in the exact same place on the screen, by pressing the ALT key (Windows computer) or Option key (Mac) and clicking the letter. This will make a copy in the same place, so you won’t see it on the main project Canvas, but you will see the duplicates appear in the layers panel.

Hide the top two and the very bottom square layer.

Select the next layer up and one of the copies of the letter and press “Combine > Weld” to join the letter to the layer.

You might spot some tiny holes which the Cricut will struggle to cut. To remove them, select the layer and press “Contour”.

When the Contour window pops up, scroll down the list and click on any tiny holes (like the one in the image below) to fill them in. Then you can close the window.

Put the layer back in its correct position in the layers panel.

Move on to the next layer by turning it on in the layers panel, along with another copy of the letter and repeat the process by pressing “Combine > Weld”.

Remove any tiny gaps with the Contour tool.

Now there is just one layer left to do. Repeat the process to get this layer welded to the letter. If your letter is smaller, you might find that it doesn’t touch the foliage on the layer in which case you wouldn’t need to Weld it as it would cut separately anyway.

As you can see below, my letter touched the foliage at the top and bottom to join it together so I still needed to Weld mine.

If you drag the layer to its correct place in the layers panel you might notice that some of the berries will be covered up by your letter and they won’t be seen in the finished design now.

You can delete these ones but keep the ones that are only partly covered over.

Turn all the layers back on, make sure they are in the correct order and then save your project.

Step 5) Cut out all the layers

When you’re happy with how the project is looking in Design Space, click “Make” and follow the instructions on-screen to cut out all the pieces.

To change the paper size, go into the dropdowns over on the left side of the screen and choose the paper size that you want to use. You need to change it for every single colour.

To save space on your cardstock, you can move things around by clicking and dragging. Make sure when you’re moving things about that nothing overlaps because otherwise, it won’t cut out properly.

TIP: New to cutting cardstock with a Cricut? Check out this in-depth tutorial which goes through every step of the process, including tips for getting the best quality cuts from your Cricut.

Step 6) Stick the project together

Lay your pieces on top of each other in the correct order so that you can check that you’re not missing anything and that you’re happy with the colours.

Use 3D foam pads and glue to stick the layers together.

Use this guide to see the order to stick the layers together in.

A printable version of this assembly guide is included in the folder when you download the cut files.

My favourite glues to use on papercraft projects are Bearly Art Glue and Collall All Purpose Glue.

These are great because they don’t “warp” or bend the cardstock like some glues do. You can use as much of it as you want and the card stays perfect – and it dries perfectly clear too!

Bearly Art Glue comes with a tiny nozzle to make it easy to apply glue to small areas of card. The Collall glue doesn’t come with this, so it’s easiest to decant it into needle tip applicator bottles so that you have more control.

The foam pads that I use are from “Dot & Dab”, but any foam squares will work. If yours are big then you may need to cut them smaller with scissors to fit inside the edges of the layers.

When adding the foam pads to larger pieces of card, make sure you add some in the middles of the pieces of card so it gives stability to the middles.

If you don’t add any foam pads in the middles then it can “sag” under the weight of the other layers which doesn’t look as good.

Continue sticking the pieces together, following the assembly guide, until your papercraft is all finished.

Step 7) Frame the project

When all your glue is dry, open up your shadow box frame and remove the wooden spacer.

Clean the glass and carefully place it inside the frame. I left my glass out so that it wouldn’t reflect my camera lights.

Place your papercraft inside the frame.

Add the back of the frame and close up the tabs.

If your shadow box isn’t quite deep enough for the frame, it might move about inside the frame which can cause it to appear “unlevel”.

To fix this, cut up some cardboard packaging (e.g. Amazon/delivery boxes) roughly to the size of the frame (it doesn’t need to be exact) and add to the back of the papercraft before putting the back on the frame. You may need a couple of pieces if your frame is particularly deep.

This helps to “pad out” the frame and hold the papercraft in place.

Turn your frame around to reveal the finished craft project!

Monogram shadow box Cricut craft

Now your Christmas shadow box is complete and ready to put up on display for the festive season!

Display it on a mantelpiece, hang it on a wall, or give it to someone special to bring a bit of holiday cheer indoors.

They would make lovely personalized gifts to put on your Christmas dinner table as an alternative to place names. That way, everyone gets a wonderful handcrafted gift to take home with them – and they will make your table look beautiful when they are all on display at everyone’s place.

Happy crafting,
Sarah x