HCC 2022 Day 17 🎃 Halloween Shadow Box

Welcome to day 17 of the Halloween Craft Countdown where I’m sharing a Cricut papercraft project every day for 20 days.

Today we’re making this layered shadow box design and I’ll show you my little trick for cutting the layers when your paper is smaller than the frame.

This project was part of 2022's Halloween Craft Countdown.

View all 20 craft projects!

Materials supply list

Here is a list of the materials that I used to make this project.

Please note that some of the links included in this article are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase I may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.

Cricut machine
Light blue Cricut cutting mat
Coloured Card (I use 160-240gsm weight of card)
Collall All Purpose Glue
Needle Tip Applicator Bottle
3D foam pads
Shadow box (Mine is a 20x20cm box frame from Hobbycraft)

Video tutorial

Watch the video below to see how to make this project. Keep scrolling for a written tutorial.

Written tutorial (with photos!)

Here’s how to make your very own Halloween shadow box papercraft project using a Cricut machine!

Step 1) Download the cutting file(s) & unzip the downloaded folder

Purchase the Cutting File(s)

This cutting file is available as part of the
Halloween Craft Countdown 2022 Instant Access Bundle.

Find out more

Already purchased? Access the downloads here.

Before you upload the SVG to Design Space, you need to unzip the download folder that it comes in.

Step 2) Upload the SVG file into Design Space

Open up Cricut Design Space and start a new Project.

Click “Upload” and then find your unzipped version of the downloaded files for this project.

Go into the “Cut Files” subfolder and then select the file called SVG_Ghost_Door_Shadow_CraftWithSarah.svg

This is how it should look after you have uploaded the file:

All the layers should appear “on top of each other” as per the image above. If you see all the layers next to each other instead, that means you’ve accidentally uploaded the wrong file type. If that’s the case, click “Cancel” on the bottom-right of the screen and try again.

Make sure you upload the file which starts SVG_ in the filename!!

After uploading, the design will show in your “Recently Uploaded Images”.

Click on it and then press “Add to Canvas” to put it onto your Project.

Step 3) Resize the design

Measure the insert of your shadow box to see what size to make the design in Design Space.

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 it.

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.

My frame size is bigger than my cardstock as I use A4 paper which can cut a maximum width of 7.75 inches on the Cricut.

I’m going to “fake” a front layer to the frame so that I can cut it on my A4 paper and still get it to fit in the frame. To do this, you will need 2 sheets of card that are bigger than A4 – I’m using 12×12 inch.

Make a square the size of your frame’s spacer (mine is 8.5 x 8.5 inches).

Duplicate it to make a copy.

Make another square slightly smaller than the size you are cutting the layers of the shadow box out of (so mine is 7.5 inches square since my shadow box layers are 7.75).

Use “Align” and “Center” to put the smaller square exactly in the middle of one of the larger ones.

Use the “Slice” tool to cut the smaller square out of the big one, then delete the middle layers so you just have a border.

When it’s all stuck together, I’ll use those bigger squares to “sandwich” the shadow box layers so it will fit in my frame:

Step 4) Cut out all the layers

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

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 5) Stick the project together

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 high-quality, un-watermarked printable version of this assembly guide is included in the folder when you download the cut file.

My favourite glue to use on papercraft projects is Collall All Purpose Glue.

It’s SO good because it doesn’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!

To make it even easier to apply glue to layered card projects, I highly recommend getting some of these needle tip applicator bottles to put the glue into.

The nozzles are REALLY tiny which makes them perfect for putting glue in the pieces of cardstock that make up this design.

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 the relevant layers, make sure you add some in the middle of the pieces of card so it give 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.