Make an Inspirational Shadow Box Collage

The little girl who lives next to us had a birthday party not too long ago that we were invited to. I consider myself the Present Queen because I like to give gifts that people actually want. I know that the little girl next store likes doing craft kits, so I looked on Amazon to find some.

I picked out a couple things for her.

And during my search, I came across a kit called “Inspire Poster.” I didn't get it for my neighbor, but it did inspire me to try making one myself without getting the kit.

I realized that the little boxes in the product looked about the same size as match boxes. And that's where I started. By ordering a bunch of match boxes on Amazon, ha ha.

So here is what you need to make your own inspirational shadow box wall art:

• bulk packs of matchboxes

• craft paint

• paper and printer

• foam adhesive

• double-sided crafters runner tape

• embellishments of your choice

• popsicle sticks

• embroidery thread

Step 1

Grab a couple packs of matchboxes and separate the box and cover. You'll want around 20 boxes all together.

I put all the matches and the cover with the strike strip in a ziplock in case I might need some matches some other time.

Step 2

Arrange the matchboxes into a collage shape. Leave about half right side up and half upside down. This is to give you an idea of how many vertical and/or horizontal quotes you'll need.

At this point, I took a picture, so I could remember how to do it later.

Step 3

Go online and pick out some quote art on Google images or Pinterest. Put the quotes in a program where you can resize them. I used the app Goodnotes, but you could also use word.

I decided to make my shadow box about creativity and art. You could pick a different theme or whatever floats your boat.

Step 4

Print the quotes out.

I had a lot of fun picking out the quotes, and therefore picked and printed way more than I needed. But I also had more choices of what to choose for the actual project.

Print out the quotes and choose which quotes to use.

Step 5

Decide what color to paint the box you'll glue them to.

For example, in the picture below, I chose to paint the box for that quote black, so it would match the quote.

However, it would be good to pick a color scheme of 5 or 6 colors only to use if you can, to make the whole piece consistent. As you can see, I chose basic rainbow colors.

You will also need to paint the insides and sides of the boxes that will go inward.

Step 6

Once the paint is dry, use a glue stick to attach the quote to the colored box.

Glue all the quotes onto their already chosen colored box. Keep in mind how many vertical or horizontal quotes you need when you put the shadow box art back together.

Put your boxes with quotes to the side for now as you embellish the rest.

Step 7: embellishing the boxes

Since this step will depend on the supplies you have on hand, I'm just going to show you what I did. You'll probably have to get creative with the embellishments you have.

Since the theme of my shadow box collage was art and creativity, I found some scrapbook stickers that had that same theme:

Most of the scrapbook stickers came with foam adhesive stickers on the back:

Those ended up looking great inside the boxes:

I also used letter stamps:

I had this scrapbooking embellishment that was supposed to look like you stitched paper.

I tried to find them online, but had no luck.

I glued some little plastic embellishments in one:

And I also found in my stash these little colored pencil charms.

So I made little slits on the top of the box...

And then tied the charms to embroidery thread and hung them from the slits:

Embellish all boxes that go inwards, keeping in mind the angle.

Step 8

Using the picture you took earlier, piece your collage together, at first without gluing it.

This way you get an idea of how it's supposed to go. You can make any changes if you need to.

Step 9

Pick up an edge box and one next to it. Use a double-sided tape roller to attach them together where they're supposed to.

Pinch down on the boxes, so it gets a good hold:

Step 10

Once you've pieced and attached them together with the adhesive tape, gently flip the whole thing over.

Step 11

The adhesive tape definitely wouldn't be strong enough to hold the shadow box art together. So you are going to glop glue onto a popsicle stick and arrange as many as you need, to attach all the boxes.

Try to make sure you don't get any popsicle stick to show on the other side.

Step 12

Now, to make it be able to hang on your wall, thread some embroidery string through a large needle. Tie the end with a big knot.

Step 13

Going through a box from the back side, poke your needle through till hits the big knot.

Now go to the other side of the collage and poke it through a box on that end and tie it off.

Now flip your shadow box collage over and hang it on the wall!!

Didn't that turn out neat? I love it. I hung it in my craft room to inspire me 😄.

Here are some of the products I used that you can purchase on Amazon. If you want to get the pre-made kit, click on the image of it at the top of the post.