Shadow Box DIY

I'm a sucker for keepsakes. I think almost every girl is. I definitely wouldn't call myself a hoarder or a clutter bug, but I have a really hard time throwing away keepsakes. I always end up with certain mementos from important things in my life like vacations, family events, etc. that I just can't throw away. After our wedding and also after the birth of Steve I decided that instead of keeping these special things in a box somewhere I would make a shadowbox of them and display them at our house. 

Here is the first shadow box I made a few years ago from our wedding. It contained all of the mementos from the wedding like our invitation and program.We also had a matchbook, monogrammed napkin and picture from the reception. I also added the garter I wore during the wedding and some fake flowers that were similar to the flowers we had at our reception. I bought a few scrapbook embellishments also to add some color and bling to the shadowbox. 

This one was my first attempt and I just winged it so its not perfect. As you can see the garter has drooped a bit over the years. I still like it though and its a neat reminder of the things we had on our wedding day!

After Steven was born, I again had a pile of miscellaneous stuff that I really wanted to hold onto but didn't have anywhere in particular to put it. We already have a wonderful homemade baby book from my friend Jenn that is gorgeous but these things just didn't fit in there. Here are a few of the things we had from his birth, the first little shirt he wore in the hospital, the little hat he wore right after he was born, his first baby foot print and a few cards from family that gave us flowers in the hospital. 

So I gathered together these things and a couple more keepsakes that I could find and went to work on making a baby Steven shadowbox.  A shadowbox is really a super easy craft to make You can just buy the case from a craft store (I got mine from Michael's), pick up some scrapbooking embellishments or decorative paper while you are there, and go to town putting it together inside there. I do recommend using glue dots over push pins, although it is tempting to use push pins they really don't hold up and stay in tight. (I'm pretty sure that's what happened to our friend, the wedding garter). But glue dots or some other kind of adhesive works great. I decided to use some left over decorative paper for the background of our shadowbox. It looked really cute at first but as things started covering it up you could barely tell it was there. Oh well. Here is the shadow box in progress, you can see all the pretty papers I later covered up.

The last thing you do after you have all your keepsakes secured to the backing is to try, very carefully, to turn it over and place it in the frame. Inevitably something is not glued down enough and comes off but that's the fun of it (not really ha ha!). Here is my finished product before I put it in the frame. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

And here is the final shadowbox. I was able to include Steven's first cap after he was born, the stats sheet that was in his basinette they kept him in, his birth announcement, a "Its a boy" sign that was in some flowers we received, a copy of his first footprints, his hospital ID bracelet, some of the cards from family we received in the hospital and our first ever pictures as a family.

I think a shadow box is a really neat way to store things you save from a particularly important or fun experience. It is so easy to make and a great way to keep your mementos out for you to look at and remember.