3D Lantern

As we are all thinking of packing away that Christmas decor, I thought I would share a 3-D project I made to add to my Christmas decor this year. I love working with paper crafts and 3-D items.

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This 3-D Nativity Scene Lantern is from the Silhouette design store.

I have to say this file was pretty easy to work with. When you first open this or any layered design up, it may look a bit intimidating but I promise the more you play with them, the easier it becomes to turn it into a masterpiece.

This design has 2 colors – the black for the entire 3-D box and the vellum papers for the “glass” of the lantern, so very easy to cut. First, you right click on the entire design and ungroup. This will separate all your pieces of the lantern out and you can move them around. Then, I will select the like items and group them back together. In this design, I grouped the bottom 3 rectangles back together because they will all be cut from the vellum. Then I move my other parts around on my 12 x 12 design mat to get as many to fit in the space as I can. In this case, you can move the circle hangers to the middle of your cutout, as shown below, to get a little more use out of your cardstock or position where ever you want on the mat. It is really a personal preference how much you move them around to cut. I like to get as much on one page as possible to send it through the Cameo one time.

I then choose the Textured Cardstock setting and Send to cut on my Cameo. After it’s cut, I flip my mat over and peel it away from the cardstock. This helps with the paper not curling as much, keeps the adhesive on your mat and helps it release a bit better. Your Silhouette cutting mat is very flexible and can be rolled back quite a ways. That doesn’t mean they won’t crack, because they can – yep I’ve done that… but it’s was an old mat too…. so it had a lot of miles on it.

In the Silhouette Studio, I move the pieces I’ve cut off my Design mat and then move the other pieces on to the mat to cut them. Or you can copy and paste the designs that are off the Design mat to a new Design mat and cut that way. Either way works and I use both methods depending on what I’m cutting.

Now comes the assembly. These are all scored where you need to fold and then you glue into place. I use a liquid glue called Liquid Glass by Close to My Heart for most of my 3-D projects. You place a small amount along the length of where you are gluing and then I hold for 10 seconds. As long as you didn’t use too much glue, it has a pretty good hold after that 10 seconds. And then you want to allow the entire project to dry completely before using. You work you way around the design until it is all assembled together.

The designer, Jennifer Rush, has also included a link to assembly instructions in the description of the design. You can find those instructions HERE as well.

And now, here are a couple images of the finished project….