The course An Introduction to Design through Making provides a hands-on introduction to maker education. Course modules can be found at the link below:
This forum strand focuses on the fold-out paper shadowbox project.
I started by downloading elements to bring my composition to life. I downloaded images of a crane and a sunset. To create images for the mountain and the stream, I used the pen tool in Inkscape to draw the path by clicking to place individual nodes on the canvas, then used the “make selected nodes smooth” option. Next, I ran the Trace Bitmap feature on the downloaded images to convert them into vector outlines and saved the output as .svg files.
Project build:
I started a new project in Inkscape and used the rectangle tool to set up a 4x4-inch frame and drew a circle inside it to act as the inner window. Then I aligned the shapes on the vertical and horizontal axes.
Using the Node tool, I broke the paths at the corners of the square frame and deleted the vertical sides, leaving just the top and bottom borders. I then drew two new 1/4-inch rectangles for the tabs, converted them to paths, and snapped them onto the sides. By breaking the paths at the intersection points, I kept the fold lines distinct from the cut lines so our cutting plotter could tell them apart. Finally, I used the Combine command to lock the tabs and horizontal edges together into one template.
To make sure the silhouettes weren’t just floating inside the frames, I overlapped them with our frames and used the Fracture tool. This broke the paths apart at every intersection, allowing me to delete the unwanted pieces outside the borders and merge the crane, river and mountain directly into the frames. After finalizing our designs, I exported each panel as a .dxf file. I made sure to de-select the “Use LWPOLYLINE type of line output” option in the settings and matched the base unit to our workspace so the dimensions would transfer perfectly.
Finally, I loaded the files into silhoutte studio and cut each layer out of different colors of cardstock. By scoring and folding the side margins of the paper, the layers naturally step forward from one another.
Siisa precious & Kuloba Emma
Hello everyone! We wanted to share our Fold-Out Paper Diorama project, which we recently completed in our Innovations class at Hawthorne-Scribner High School.
Our process started with searching online for images. We downloaded a few different images: a leaping antelope, native savanna grass, trees, a glowing sun animated image, and the iconic figure of the Bushman with his bow and arrow from the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy”.
Once we had our images, we brought them into Inkscape to build our frames. We started with a basic 4x4 inch square template and drew an inner circle for our scene window. To make the diorama self-standing, we used the Node tool to break the paths at the corners of the square and deleted the vertical sides, leaving just the top and bottom borders. Then, we drew two 1/4-inch rectangles for side tabs, converted them to paths, and snapped them onto the edges. By keeping the fold lines distinct from the cut lines, we ensured our cutting plotter could tell them apart.
Next, we used the Combine command to lock the tabs and horizontal borders into one template.Next, we brought our downloaded images into the templates. We ran the Trace Bitmap feature to convert our images into clean vector paths. To lock our silhouettes into the frames, we overlapped them with our templates and used the Fracture tool. This broke the paths at every intersection, letting us delete the unwanted rogue pieces outside the borders and cleanly merge our antelope, trees, grass, and bushman directly into their respective frames as layers.After finalizing our designs, we exported each panel as a .dxf file. We made sure to de-select the “Use LWPOLYLINE type of line output” option in the settings and matched the base unit to our workspace so the dimensions would transfer perfectly.
Finally, we loaded the files into Silhouette Studio and sent them to our Portrait 3 die cutter. We chose vibrant colors of cardstock to capture the savanna atmosphere. By carefully scoring and folding the side tabs, the paper layers naturally stepped forward from one another, creating their own built-in depth and support structure.
To create this layered water buffalo shadowbox, I began in Inkscape by setting up a 4x4-inch frame with a centered circular window. I hand-drew the winding river and mountain paths using the Pen tool, making the nodes smooth for a natural look, and used the Fracture tool to merge these background elements cleanly into the frame structure. For the physical assembly, I designed 1/4-inch side tabs to separate the fold paths from the cut lines so the plotter could differentiate them, before exporting the layers as .dxf files.
The buffalo layer required a custom workflow to capture its detailed coloring. Inside Silhouette Studio, I imported the original high-resolution picture of the buffalo and perfectly aligned it with the vector trace from my .dxf file to prevent any overlap. I then enabled the registration marks under the Page Setup panel and printed the buffalo image onto cardstock using a color printer. After the Silhouette plotter scanned the printed marks and precisely cut the silhouette, I cut the remaining background and foreground layers from solid colored cardstock. Scoring and folding the side margins allowed the finished panels to step forward naturally, creating a beautiful sense of three-dimensional depth.