Santa's Sleigh Shadow Box Card

 

For Christmas, I knew I wanted to create a card for my mom that would represent her ranch somehow. That is when I got the idea of having Santa fly over a snow-covered field with an excited horse waiting to greet him. 

Although I have made shadow boxes in the past, I have never used this technique on a card. Since it was being applied to a card, I knew I had to limit the number of layers, so I kept it at four. The first three layers were cut out of white cardstock, and the final top layer was cut out of plaid cardstock. 

To create the sky, I laminated blue shimmer cardstock to the solid, white background layer. Before gluing it down, I applied gold fold to the blue shimmer cardstock's back to give the stars a nice effect. I then cut out and applied a circle of pale yellow shimmer cardstock to represent the moon.

Layer 1

 

The second layer consists of the template for Santa Claus, the barn, and the back hillside. On top of those, I laminated Santa and his sleigh in black, the colorized barn cut-out, and finally, a layer of white glitter cardstock to represent the snow. 

Layer 2

The third layer contains the template for the horse and the front hillside. For the horse, I cut-out and laminated with brown and beige cardstock. Once again, I used white glitter cardstock for the snow. 

Layer 3

The final top layer was cut out of decorative cardstock. It supports the two trees and is also the base for the Merry Christmas. I also attached two more layers of Santa and his sleigh to the bottom layer using foam dots so that it appears he is flying over the scene and is not covered by the frame. 

Layer 4

I also cut out several empty frames between each of the layers, glued them together, and used them as spacers to give dimension between the layers. That is what helps to create the shadow box effect. 

Since this is a card for my mom, I put pen to paper and came up with this jolly, little poem written just for her. 

Across the night sky,

Santa flew in his sleigh,

joyfully welcomed,

by an excited neigh.

 

Whispers quickly spread,

in quiet, hushed tones,

of Santa’s arrival,

to their happy home.

  

Prancing through,

the glistening snow,

appeared a reindeer,

with a magical glow.

 

Merry Christmas to all,

Santa said with a cheer,

For each one of you,

I hold most dear.

                                                                            

As with all of my cards, I decorated the back and added my logo. 

Just as the card depicts, Santa's sleigh is ready to take flight this Christmas eve. With it, my wishes go out to all of you for a cheerful and bright holiday. 

God bless, everyone!