Flower Shadow Box DIY: Entire Process from Start to Finish!

Learn how to make your own flower shadow box with Cricut rose paper flowers and a vinyl monogram. Perfect gift idea for babies, weddings, and so much more!

This paper flower shadow box has been on my to-do list for a long time. I’ve had several requests for a tutorial lately so I finally pushed it to the top of my list.

And I’m so glad I did! I am absolutely in awe of how gorgeous this DIY flower shadow box turned out (it’s a close race with my stained glass cardstock shadow box). It would be a perfect gift for babies, anniversaries, weddings, birthdays, Mother’s Day, retirement, custom Christmas gifts, really anything!

I do have to forewarn you that it is not a quick project. Probably why I waited for so long because I like things to come together quickly! It’s not hard, just tedious (not as bad as when I painted my staircase spindles though!)

It probably takes an hour or so to roll all of the flowers needed for a shadow box. So crank up Alexa, turn on a favorite show, or grab some wine!

This Cricut flower shadow box tutorial is long, so stay with me! If you know how to do certain parts, just skip by!

I do have a full YouTube video of the entire process at the bottom of the post plus a much shorter version that should play on the top or the side.

Note: If you don’t have a Cricut machine, use our free paper rose template to cut flowers out by hand.

Materials Needed for Flower Shadow Box

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Shareasale, Cricut, Awin, CreativeFabrica, and Amazon.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text). As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• shadow box – You can find some at your local craft stores for relatively cheap if they are on sale or you have a coupon. This is the brand I’m using on Amazon but it was cheaper at a craft store
• cardstock – I am using Cricut 12×12 seafoam
• quilling tool or tweezers
• adhesive vinyl
• transfer tape
• tacky glue or hot glue gun
• Cricut Explore Air or Cricut Maker – check both Cricut.com and Amazon for the best prices

Making Shadow Box Flowers

The most time consuming part of this Cricut shadow box is making all of the 3D roses. Depending on how big your shadow box is will depend on how many paper flowers you need to make.

The shadow box I am using is 9×9. The inside board that needs to be covered with paper flowers is 8.5 x 8.5 inches.

I tried a few different size flowers, but the one that ended up working best was a flower I sized to 6 inches across.

The six-inch across image size ended up making a rolled rose about 1.6 to 1.75 inches wide. Some were a little smaller, some slightly bigger depending on how tightly they were rolled.

I made five rows of five flowers for a total of 25 rolled flowers.

I recommend cutting out a few different sizes and placing them on the board to make sure they’ll fit how you want them before you cut out 25!

Once you are in Cricut Design Space, click on Image and then search 3D flowers. If you want to save some time and use the one I am using, type #M3D7E1 in the search bar (make sure to type the #).

Click on it and then click Insert Images. Change the size of the image to 6 inches on the Width. I find it easiest just to type it in the box. Then hit return to change it and keep proportions.

I am a fan of getting as many things on one mat as I can. Sometimes CDS doesn’t get as many on as possible so I go in and do it myself!

I wanted to cut 4 flowers out of each 12×12 piece of cardstock. On the Prepare Screen change the Project copies at the top to 4. You’ll notice it will make two mats with two on each.

I changed the mat size to 12 x 24 so CDS would put all the images on one mat. Don’t worry I’m not using a 12 x 24 mat!

Once the images are all on one mat, I clicked on the second flower and moved it up and to the right of the first rose. It will overlap at first, but click on the rotate button and rotate the image so they are not overlapping.

Then move the third image up under the first so that it’s above the 12 inch line. And then move the last one to the side and rotate it. This is how my screen looked.

Now it’s time to cut them out! To get 25 paper flowers I’m going to need to cut 7 pieces of cardstock. Seven sheets with 4 flowers will be 28 but more is better than not having enough!

I’m just going to keep cutting out this same mat. I put the cardstock on a mat, turn my dial to Cardstock, load the mat, and push the button for my Cricut to cut.

Once the first mat is cut off, remove the excess cardstock. It just pulls right off with all these circular rings.

Then remove the four rose cut outs from the mat. You can use a scraper to peel them off or flip the mat over and peel the mat from the cardstock.

Get your fingers ready… it’s time to start rolling. I’m not going to go too far into detail on this part, because I have a full tutorial all about rolling Cricut flowers here. Make sure to go check it out.

These steps are also all in the full YouTube video at the bottom.

I talked about this in the video. This is an optional step. I wanted the petals of the paper flowers to splay out a bit so I used a ball tool to roll the edges on the backside of the cut out.

Use tweezers or insert the end of the paper in a quilling tool. Start rolling towards yourself. I roll a little then remove the tool and just roll with my fingers.

Again make sure to watch this process in the video or hop on over to my paper rolling tutorial here.

Once they are rolled, allow them to open a bit and then glue the bottoms with tacky or hot glue. Keep rolling all the rest of the 25 paper flowers. Allow the glue to dry.

Whew… that is the longest part, now things will start coming together faster!

Take apart the shadow box and pull the board out. I found it easiest to also bring out the wood rim so I knew to not glue the roses super close to the edges.

I laid out all the paper flowers first to see how close I’d need to glue them together.

I measured and marked the exact center of the board so I knew where to put the center rose. Once that one was glued down, I glued down the rest of the roses in the center making sure to make sure they were aligned and then the center vertical line.

Push down the flowers to make sure they glue down well.

Just keep gluing the rest of the flowers on the base of the shadow box until it’s full.

It looks so pretty already! Let the glue dry! I tried to turn it over too early and one fell off.

Making a Monogram for a Shadow Box

Let’s work on creating the image for the front of the shadow box. You can really put anything on it you think. A short phrase, bible verse, Mom, really you can cut anything out of vinyl.

I have a bunch of free SVG files you can use on my site plus if you subscribe to our community we have a FREEBIE section just for you!

I am making this custom shadow box for a baby so I’m putting a split monogram letter with her name in the middle.

I happened to get an email from CreativeFabrica of a $1 deal of split letter monograms so that’s where I got the one I am using. Click here to go download it if you want to use the same one.

I do have a free alphabet of split letter monograms that are a bit more basic if you’d like to use those and also a video tutorial on how to make your own here.

So once I downloaded it I opened CDS and clicked on the Text button. I searched Monogram Classy in the text search box. There are three different fonts in the collection. I used type Two since it came in as two separate images.

To insert the lower part of the letter, I typed a lower case a in the text box.

Then to get the top half, I inserted a new text box and typed in a capital A. Make both of them the same width. Then move them so they have a gap in between them the size you like.

Then the hard part of choosing a font for the name! I ended up deciding on Library 2 which is a Cricut Access font.

I typed the name in and sized it to fit in between the top and bottom of the letter. Then I selected everything and aligned it Center Horizontally.

Since I am cutting the entire image out of one color and want it cut out exactly as it is I clicked on Attach.

Everything will turn the same color. Then I sized it to a little over 6 inches wide.

Cut it out of adhesive vinyl on the Vinyl setting.

Weed off the extra vinyl. (All of these steps are in the video at the bottom!)

Applying the Vinyl to the Shadow Box

You can either remove the glass from the shadow box to apply the vinyl or apply it after the rose backing is in and everything is back in place.

My roses were still drying so I removed the glass (be careful with it!) and cleaned it.

Then I applied transfer tape to my vinyl, scraped it down well and trimmed the edges.

I centered it on the glass by using a ruler and then taped down the top with blue painter’s tape (this is called the hinge method). Flip the paper over, remove the backing and gently lay the vinyl down on the glass.

Smooth it down and then use a scraper to adhere it the glass. Make sure to watch the video if this isn’t making sense!

Remove the transfer tape.

Put it face down in the front of the shadow box.

Now it’s time to put the shadow box back to together. I found it easiest to leave the wooden rim around the roses on the base and flip them both over together.

Push the tabs on the back back down or whatever your shadow box has to close it back together.

There you have it! A gorgeous custom flower shadow box to keep or to gift.

DIY Paper Flower Shadow Box Video Tutorial

If you’d like to save this Cricut flower box tutorial for later, simply hover over the image below and PIN It now! Then check out a bunch of other fun Cricut cardstock projects.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!