Patriotic Paper Flower and Star Shadowbox

Have you ever gotten on a craft kick? Not the crochet a little each evening or even a weekend of scrapbooking with some friends, but a REAL "can’t hold all the ideas in my head kick?" That’s what I’m dealing with right now. Come join the madness with this tutorial! This paper flower shadow box has been a work of love. My nephew recently left on deployment in Afganistan. He’s in my prayers constantly and I wanted to give his wife something as she endures his time away.

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How to make a Patriotic Paper Flower and Star Shadowbox

A lot of my inspiration came from the desire to use my Silhouette Cameo more fully. (affiliate)

Originally thought that I would just use it for scrapbooking. But I had NO idea what this baby can do!

The possibilities are ENDLESS. Cards, scrapbooking, paper flowers, vinyl, and of course scrapbooking!

After getting it for Christmas a few years back, I’ve not had a chance to really get comfortable using it. I decided to switch to the Silhouette after my Cricut died so that I could use my font collection on my computer. I have a bit of an addiction to free fonts. Be careful, it's a sickness. After getting a great deal on a subscription to the Silhouette Design Store for 3 months, I got busy making!

Patriotic Paper Flower and Star Shadowbox Tutorial

Paper flower shadowboxes can be used for many things. Mother’s Day, teachers gifts or just decor in your home!

Here are two examples of Patriotic boxes that you can make today! The one above is a basic one that can be used for decor around Memorial Day or the 4th of July. Below is one that is a special way to honor any man or woman in the military, past or present.

Materials needed

9 x 9 or 8 x 10 inch Shadow box—I got mine at Michael’s
Scrapbook paper
Paper flower design from Silhouette Design Store
Silhouette Cameo
Quilling Slotted Tool
Spray adhesive like Krylon Easy-Tack
Glue gun or Eileen's Tacky Glue

Steps to make paper flower shadowbox

1. Cut the paper flowers. Use a 12x24 inch mat so to cut 8 at a time.

2. Roll the flowers by hand or with a Slotted Quilling tool. Try to get them about the same size. This will help when you put the design together.

You can roll a bunch and glue them later. It actually helps them to have some time to expand and look like a real flower.

3. Glue the bottom of the flower to the rolled part with hot glue or Eileen's Tacky Glue.

4. Take the bottom off the shadow box. Then attach paper to the back of the shadow box with spray adhesive if you want the colors of the flowers to stand out more. Compare with paper and without paper below. Both are great looks.

5. Layout your design. Think about having space to fit it back into the shadow box frame easily. Ask me how I know.

6. After you are happy with your design, then use hot glue to attach the paper flowers to the paper or on to the back of the shadow box. If you are doing a photo or stars attach those now as well. Use scrapbook adhesive if you want as the don't require as strong of a hold since they are not as heavy as the paper flowers.

7. You can stop here and have a beautiful shadowbox but another option is to add a saying or date to the glass in front of the flowers. Before adding words make sure you clean the glass really well. I used vinegar so that there weren't any streaks.

8. There are MANY tips and trick on cutting and applying vinyl on Pinterest and YouYube so go check out how to do that there! One tip is that I used the font GUNPLAY to get the military look. You can find that font on Dafont.com!

9. After you have applied the words it is time to put the back on the shadow box. This was a bit tricky. Go slow and tuck all the edges of the flowers inside the box. Close the back and check how it looks!

Details on the more basic Patriotic Shadow Box

If you don't want a picture in your shadow box you can still have the "Stars" and stripes decor. Make this more basic shadow box with a 9 x 9 inch shadow box instead of the 8 x 10 size.

Cut some stars from silver glitter scrapbook paper to add to your flowers! Make your design and then put together the box.

Don't forget to bookmark or pin this project and be sure to share it with a friend or two!

Of course these shadow boxes can be done any time of year but they are perfect for the Fourth of July. Make one and put it out with all your red, white and blue decor!