Halloween Embroidered Shadowbox

Spooky season is here and I can't help but start crafting all things spooky! I came up with an idea for a shadow box featuring a haunted house and pumpkins, but I wanted it to be made out of felt and tulle. I treated this project sort of like an embroidery sampler, where I used many different embroidery stitches to put the pieces together. I didn't go for perfect embroidery because it somehow makes it more spooky to have it be a little imperfect. I love the overall effect, let me show you how I made it.

If you're unfamiliar with embroidery stitches, check out this Instructable for the basics on how to: https://www.instructables.com/Embroidery-101/

For this project, I used:

• felt (black, orange & yellow)
• brown vinyl
• transfer paper
• embroidery floss, various colors
• embroidery needle
• tulle
• white cotton, for ghost (or you can use felt)
• 3 frames (I recycled some 8x8 canvases)
• stapler & staples
• black acrylic paint & paint brush
• hot glue
• SilhouetteStudio Software
• Cricut Maker with fabric rotary blade & pink fabric mat

For this shadowbox, I recycled three 8x8 canvas frames I had from a previous project. You could use picture frames or something similar, but I had these on hand and I love finding new uses the things.

I didn't need the canvas parts so I cut along the sides with a box cutter. I removed the canvas and pulled off the back strips. I left the staples on the back as you won't see them anyway.

Once the canvas was removed, I painted the frames with black acrylic paint. I painted both the front and the back and made sure to get into all the little nook and crannies. Once the paint was dry, I cut pieces of tulle to fit the size of the frames and stapled it in place on the back of each frame with a stapler. Tulle is a netting type fabric and has some stretch, but it can also rip, so it was a balance between stretching the tulle so it was tight, but not too tight that it ripped. Tulle is cheap though so you can afford to practice a little if needed.

Once the frames were ready I opened up Silhouette Studio and started to created the design. Silhouette Studio is a free software program from Silhouette America that works similar to Photoshop. I enjoy designing in this program because I can save the designs as an SVG and cut the felt with my Cricut Maker. You can download the software for free at SilhouetteAmerica.com/software and it's both PC and Mac compatible. If you don't have the machines, you can still use the software, or you can of course design on paper and cut the felt out with scissors.

To start this design, I measured the inside dimensions of my canvas frames and created a square of the same size. I kept all my design elements within these dimensions to make sure they'd fit in the frames in the end. I decided to have three layers: the first layer would have pumpkins and a bat; the second layer would have a house, ghost, pumpkins and headstones; and the third layer would have trees, a moon and a bat. I decided the third layer would have the trees on the front of the tulle and the moon attached to the back so the moon wouldn't block the tree branches.

I laid the concept all out in Silhouette Studio then separated each layer out and saved the file as an SVG.

I opened the design in Cricut Design Space The Cricut software separates everything out by color, which may or may not make things easier for you, depending on your workflow. I used the pink fabric cutting mat and the rotary blade and cut out all the felt shapes. After all the pieces were cut, I laid out the pieces in the frames to see how they all would look together.

Although the pumpkins, bats, house and moon are cut out of felt, I wanted to cut the trees out of vinyl. I knew I wouldn't be able to cut all the fine branches out of felt, and tulle doesn't like heat (more on that later), so I cut the trees out of regular vinyl. After weeding the design (removing the unwanted pieces of vinyl) I used transfer paper to transfer the trees to the tulle. Next, I started sewing on the moon using a blanket stitch.

Next, I sewed the pumpkins onto the front screen using a simple backstitch. To do a backstitch, you basically do a running stitch but then stitch backwards to fill in the gaps. I used a messy satin stitch to add the jack-o-lantern details to the pumpkin faces. I found that supporting the piece I was stitching into from the back helped get the needle and thread to pass through the tulle.

Next, I moved onto the middle frame and the haunted house. I started by sewing the house on using a running stitch around the bottom edges of the hill then used a split stitch around the top of the hill. I added in some subtitle house details with black thread and then added in some yellow windows and boarded the up with brown thread. Next I spaced the pumpkins so they fit between the ones on the front screen and stitched those in place with a backstitch again. Finally I added in the RIP on the headstone using a single white thead (tiny details at their best).

Next I added a cute little ghost to haunt the place. I used a scrap of white cotton fabric and cut a little ghost shape out with fabric scissors. I used french knots for the eyes and mouth and frayed the edges of the ghost a little bit. It was vital to support the tulle when pulling through the french knots!

Next I added in the bats and used a heat gun to put some holes in the tulle. In hindsight, I might have gone a little overboard with the holes but I thought it would be fun to add a little more dimension to the piece. Tulle melts very easily so I had to be careful with adding in the holes!

Once all the screens were ready, I attached them to each other with a bit of hot glue in the corners. The final product is pretty much what I had in mind when I set out to create this piece. I've never seen a similar type project and I was happy with how it turned out. What spooky things will you create?