chronicles of a stay at home!: DIY Shadow Boxes- Part One!

During my second trimester, at my mother's house, apart from eating there really wasn't much to do..... also since I was going to be missing a close friends wedding I decided to make her a really nice gift.... I also had another close friend who had had a little baby boy and another close friend who i don't remember giving a gift for her wedding..... so basically I had lots of gifts i had to give and with time on my hands i decided to make them!!

Now I say close friend close friend close friend because they really are.... they're school friends.... the kind you've literally grown up with.... and since we had a really small class with more or less the same forty girls from nursery to 10 standard.... we are all pretty damn close.... to the point that we know each others siblings and pets and boyfriends and now husbands and just about everything.... but these three in particular are my favorite!

One has been my friend since nursery.... we lived a few lanes apart and when i was six i ran off to her house when I wanted to play and no one at my place would take me to her place.... One I have practically lived at her place for class projects and dance rehearsals.... my favorite dog apart from my own was hers.... Leo.... the sweetest most loving golden retriever.... and the third... well she is my first brush with knowing what a "bff" is!!!! Truly... we were soul mates... we were so close we used even post each other letters because we had so much to talk about!!!!!

so yeah.... special gifts for some really special girls!!

I have always loved shadow boxes but never got around to making them..... seeing the wedding invitation of the friend who was already married, and the decor for the naming ceremony of the little baby boy, inspired me...and i decided to give this a shot!!!

I started with the baby boy.... loved his name "Agastya".

Of course as soon as i started i got confused.... a boy... that eliminates butterflies and flowers!!! Finally after much brainstorming and sketching i decided to give his name priority and make a cityscape.... my mum's suggestion! cuz she loves my cityscapes!!!

I took a 12 x 12 x 3" box, made by the guy who frames my mums paintings. I really wanted to play with the depth, so i made the 3D alphabets with thermocol and wrapped them in wool.
(theromocol isn't the best idea.... I had one or two alphabets break while wrapping them in wool... and that just took up too much of my time making new ones)

I liked the idea of some elements hanging from the top some being placed on the base. Some being at the foreground and some at the back.

This is how the box would look hung on a wall (right now mine is on the sofa!!!) The biggest mistake I made was in placing the car... you just can't see it once the box is closed :( silly me.

Sorry the pictures are all dark.... still working on bettering my photography! But you can see the detailing of the felt flowers on the tree and the beautiful wool wrapped alphabets!!

The buildings are my favorite part.... and the car even.... even though it turned out to be a bit of a fail :(

This is the first wedding box.....

This was my gold attack shadow box!!!! I wanted this to be fully bling Indian wedding inspired.... but with a very sophisticated edge to it... just like their wedding card. Also for some reason I just couldn't find their wedding picture, so I hunted on their facebook accounts for a great picture and fell in love with this one!

Kaleeras were a major part of the wedding decor and my favorite part of the wedding too... So that was one of my main elements. I used a silk thread instead of wool for these letters because I feel it looks more rich. And I used a part of their wedding card, a leaf which was their wedding motif, behind the alphabets.