Snowy Woodland Shadowbox Ornament
There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.
-William Sharp
When Cara popped into my DM a few weeks ago to ask me if I was up for joining CRAFTMAS this year I was equal parts really grateful that she reached out to ask and really scared to say yes. It has been 3 months since we lost Paul and the heartbreak and grief has not gotten easier. Grieving and healing are not linear experiences. One minute I find myself standing an inch outside of the devastation and I can breathe again, maybe write a grocery list, return a few emails, make a phone call. The next minute I am down for the count. I call these minutes “the smackdown”. When Cara reached out I was standing just one little micro-inch outside of the grief and there was a little voice that snuck in through the crack and whispered, you should say yes. Even if you have to pretend, this could be good for you. So I listened to that voice because I have not heard anything that kind or gentle inside of my head or heart in months. Can you guys guess where this is going? Cut to: all the days after that minute. Me in the studio, staring off into space. Feeling not a shred of inspiration. Then picture me attempting to maybe cut some paper or move some paint around, or pet some felt.. waiting for the spark.. only to find that there is no spark. Then picture me feeling really angry that the thing that has always been my salvation..drawing, painting, making, creating feels so far away. A few days after Paul died I could not remember how to tie a hanging loop. I was at my mother’s dining table in tears because this thing that I had done a million times before was suddenly complex code. Grief Brain. That is what I call it. A fog, a numb, a barrier.. probably some amazing biologic function that is designed to keep the grieving steady and upright that happens to also make it impossible to read a book, remember a pin number, stick with a decision, or even think about starting a holiday art project. So I sat in the discomfort for days and then I shared my dilemma with Riley who is the world's oldest, wisest, kindest, brainiest 7th grader, and she said, we can do this, I will help you. The idea for this project was born from love. Love in the form of two helping hands and love for my December birthday girl and her love of washy watercolor and magic, and miniatures, and snow and foxes and reindeer (check out her watercolor galaxy reindeer) and our mutual love of scarves (we have A LOT of scarves). I will confess that there were flickering moments of lightness that occurred in the making of these magical little shadowboxes. They gave me hope.
Have you read this far only to think: what the heck is CRAFTMAS? Craftmas is the brainchild of my friend Laura from Little Button Diaries. It’s a bunch of creative ladies from all over the globe who band together in the first two weeks of December to share some fun holiday makes. You might remember Laura’s guest post from last year. Or our NO-SEW garland? Well it’s back this year and bigger and better than ever. You should definitely go follow the #CRAFTMAS hashtag so that you don’t miss anything.
Now for our Craftmas project! This is one of those projects that looks a lot more fancy and complex than it actually is. It can also be modified many different ways to meet the age and interest of the maker. You can draw your own animal silhouettes. You can collage magazine pictures of animals. You can cut out photographs of your favorite little people and place them in the snowy scene to create a little keepsake. You can skip the animals all together and draw an igloo or a snowy village. You get the idea…follow our recipe or swap out some ingredients and make it your own!
Materials:
woodland animal template (scroll down to subscribe)
watercolor paint brush + water
** this post contains affiliate links. We receive a small % of any purchase you make using our links at no additional cost to you. We only link to products we use and love. Thank you for your support!
Gather your supplies and print and cut out your animal templates
We used a wet on wet watercolor technique to achieve an inky winter sky. To do this, start by wetting your paper with water and then add your watercolor onto the wet surface of your paper. The color will start to bleed and spread. Add different colors and watch them swirl together. We used grey, blue and black.
When most of your surface is covered in water and paint you can start to pick up your paper and let the paint drip. Keep turning your paper until you are satisfied with your blend. If it is too light add more pigment.
When you are satisfied with your night sky paintings set them to the side to dry. Ours took about 20 minutes to dry fully. You can speed up the process by using a hair dryer.
Once your paper is dry you will trace a circle to fit inside of your box lid. It took us a couple tries to get the dimensions right and each of our box lids was slightly different in size. Use your white gel pen to create stars in the sky. Make dots of various size and don’t forget to include a few shooting stars!
Now it is time to cut some “snow” out of your white foam sheet. Press the bottom of your box into the foam to create a nice indentation. You can use this to imprint as a guide. One circle of foam will yield the snow bank for two shadowboxes. Glue your sky in your box lid and then glue your snow bank on top. Next glue and place your animal paying close attention to placement. They should look like they are walking on top of the snow not floating across the midnight sky.
Cut a 3” strip of velvet and create a scarf. We used two pieces to achieve “the look”. Take another 3” strip of the same color to create a hanging loop. Glue the loop to the back of your box with hot glue.
We cut the velvet ribbon in half (lengthwise) to achieve a skinnier scarf for our wolf, hare and deer. We used the ribbon as/is for the moose and polar bear.
I think these shadowbox scenes look beautiful hung on a wall like this or they could even become ornaments to hang on your tree!
