Alice in Wonderland Shadowbox

Who hasn't ever been afraid of the dark? Both of my daughters have slept with their brightest room lights ablaze when they were younger. We had to creatively ween both of them off with fewer and fewer lights aglow in their rooms. My oldest child managed to overcome her fear of the dark eventually through only using a simple outlet plug- in nightlight. I had been on an Alice in Wonderland kick recently and decided to create a themed night light for my youngest daughter. Besides a soothing light to keep away the "scaries" of the night she could gaze into the depths of Alice's own fantastical adventure. Once I finished with the shadow box night light, my youngest daughter told me she could "gaze into the light and fantasize she was in a different world" as she relaxed herself to sleep. I consider that statement a story of success.

Supplies:

Deep box (dimensions for my already built box were 8"deep, 13.5" tall and 21" wide)

White cardstock (100 lb or heavier)

Thin wood for framing each scene (approximately 1/2' thick and 1/2" wide)

Wood glue

White spray paint

Golden shimmering paper

LED string

Four 1" x 1/16" brad nails

Tools:

Gimp graphics software to modify designs

Silhouette cutting machine

SIlhouette Studio software to use the Silhouette cutting machine

Laminator for making each cardstock scene more rigid

Table saw

Staple gun with 1/4" staples

Drill with 1/16" drill bit and a bit large enough for the LED string to fit into the box

Having read the original Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll to both of my daughters, I grew attached to the whimsical adventure of the headstrong Alice. The original illustrations by John Tenniel also jumpstarted a creative kick to construct large Alice in Wonderland characters for an annual garden party. Lawn games and Alice- themed decorations brought more fantastical fun to our young family. Now that my daughters are teenagers they still request our Alice garden party to kick off the summer.

Part of my inspiration to make a lighted shadow box was the deep drawer I had in my "save for something creative later" collection. The dimensions were 8" deep, 21" wide and 13.5" tall. The drawer was slightly larger than what I was planning, but I was pleased that I didn't have to construct the box and liked the dovetailed joinery which I felt I couldn't duplicate as well.

I carefully trimmed off the bottom of the drawer using a table saw and was ready to start the build.

When making your own box consider how many layers you'd like and what the depth would be between each framed scene. My frames were approximately 1/2" thick and I was planning on 7 scenes, for a total depth of all the scenes of 3 1/2 ". Also you need to consider the space required to have the images backlit with an LED light strip.

I began my search for existing images which wasn't too easy. Eventually I found several styles online. I chose black and white images which I could modify through Gimp, an editing program.

Caterpillar by Laura Barrett: https://www.behance.net/gallery/25807367/Alices-Adventures-in-Wonderland

Mad Hatter Tea Party by Timoteo Velosa: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/140806225377330/

Alice under the tree by MsBashie01: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/2111131053597958/

Queen and Card by MsBashie01:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/just-alice-in-2025--68735965056/

Cheshire Cat by Jessica LaMange: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/just-alice-in-2025--68735965056/

As I wanted to create depth in the lighted shadow box I determined how many layers I would use. I figured I would have the layers progress from front to back as Alice traveled through Wonderland.

The first layers would have Alice with her sister as she began to dream of her Wonderland tale. The rabbit would appear and then lead deeper into more character encounters. I wanted to include the caterpillar, tea party and her visit with the Queen of Hearts.

Planning out the image arrangement I had .seven layers. Each consecutive layer from the front to the back was approximately 1 inch higher than the previous scene so that the furthest layer back was approximately 6 inches higher than the foreground.

Starting with the foreground the scenes in order were as follows:

1st scene White rabbit on the right heading left to his hole.

2nd scene Entrance to the hole on the left.

3rd scene Alice looking down towards the hole and the hole continuing deeper.

4th scene Alice's sister reading under a tree on the left and on the right the caterpillar smoking the hookah by the mushroom with the hole going deeper.

5th scene The tea party on the right with the white rabbit, door mouse and the Mad Hatter with the hole going deeper.

6th scene Castle in the center with the Queen of Hearts, a royal card and a flamingo.

7th scene The Cheshire cat smiling in the background taking up the entire remaining space of the scenes.

The software I used was the free online site Gimp. I needed to modify the images and convert them into cutting files for the Silhouette cutting machine.

One image showing Alice with her sister, the white rabbit and the rabbit hole were modified into several layers for the shadow box.

Through my basic understanding of Gimp and a variety of tutorials I learned how to add and erase pixels on each image. The following steps are what I used to make each scene.

1.) Go to File > New and enter the dimensions of your scenes. My scene maximum was 12" high by 19.75 " wide. The Silhouette Cameo 5 could handle a maximum height of 12" so I just met my desired dimension.

2.) Select Open Existing Image and choose your image. Keep the color profile.

3.) Select Layer > New Layer. Each time you make a new scene from the base image, make a new layer so you have a layer that is modified but you still have the base image for future layer modifications.

4.) I needed to reorient the page setup so I went to Layer > Transform> Flip 90 Counterclockwise.

5.) Go to Image > Fit Canvas to Layers to get your boundary dimensions set.

6.) Go to Crop. and select Delete Cropped Pixels. Press Return and you have the image and canvas sized uniformly.

7.) Select Tools > Paint Tools > Pencil. To change the pencil color, select the double- square icon in the toolbox. Select the color you wish to use. The color you choose will appear in the "current color" selection.

8.) To delete pixels use the white color. To add pixels use the black color.

9.) You can also zoom in and change the pencil/ brush size to make your edits more detailed.

10.) At the end to remove the yellow dotted line (the active boundary) go to View and deselect Show Layer Boundary.

11.) When done with each layer go to File > Export As > "write your file name". It will be saved as a .png file.

I was fortunate to have a Silhouette Cameo 5 desktop cutting machine to borrow in this project. The maximum height it can process is 12" and can feed in a 16' piece of paper.

In this step I used Silhouette Studio for the Silhouette cutting machine.

1.) Select File > New Project Wizard > Print & Cut > START.

2.) Go to Panels> Page Set Up and select your machine model and media size. I had to change the orientation so it would feed correctly into the machine.

3.) Go to View > Show Cut Border to make sure your scene fits within the cutting area.

4.) Go to File > Open and select your design.

5.) Go to Panel > Transform and align and rotate your image to fit your cutting area.

6.) Go to Panels > Trace and select 'Trace Selected Area'. Adjust the threshold to make sure all of your design is yellow.

7.) Choose the advanced option of 'Trace'. Your cut lines will be red.

8.) Go to File > Save As to save your masterpiece.

9.) Finally go to File > Send to Silhouette. Enter your material type and adjust the action to Cut. Be sure your machine is set up properly (blade, mat, material ) and select Send.

Based on the inner dimensions of the box I created frames for each image. I cut thin wood strips into slightly less than 1/2" wide and 1/2" thick strips. I cut out lap joints and glued them together with wood glue. I spray painted the fronts and backs white after gluing them all together.

To prevent the cardstock from curling I decided to laminate each piece of paper. Again I was fortunate to have a laminator to borrow to laminate each scene.

I decided not to glue the scene layers to the frames in case I decided to change out the layers in the future. Instead I used a staple gun and 1/4" staples to staple each scene.

With all the scenes added and a backstop for the las background scene, I had approximately 3" left of space behind all the scenes to stuff in the LED light strip.

From the backside I cut out a hole large enough to feed the LED strip through. I also added a switch to make it easier to turn it off when our daughter did finally fall asleep. Make sure your strip doesn't get too hot and try to find a shorter length so it can all fit inside the box. You don't want the lights to overheat in the enclosed space, and only use LEDs not incandescents.

I also added a golden reflective paper for the back wall to add a shimmering effect.

For the last finishing touch I added a frame to cover the scene borders. I used spalted birch and glued the mitred corners together. On the backside of the frame I added two rails to friction- fit onto the inside of the main box frame.

To keep the frame from falling out I added four 1" brad nails (into pre- drilled holes) as locking mechanisms to keep the frame from falling out.