Make It: Gorgeous Shadow Boxes

I held onto Gracie's (now 4) hospital stuff for awhile, not wanting to get rid of it, but not at all sure what the heck to do with it.

Exactly what are you supposed to do with the very first shirt your kid ever in their life wore? And that tiny little hat... and one of those itsy bitsy little diapers I couldn't bear to throw away (clean, of course!)

Then one day, I thought: OH! Shadow box the little suckers!

So I did. These two shadow boxes were easy to complete and only took about an hour and a half, which was nice because I was able to knock the project out while Annelie was napping. The hobby store was having a sale on their shadow boxes and scrapbook paper, so I grabbed some up and made both these little shadow boxes for under $20.

I used quite a lot of things, but most of them I already had on hand. Obviously, buy what you want... but take a look around your house first, to see what you might already have on hand.

Materials:

• 1 shadow box
• baby accessories (diaper, shirt, hat...)
  
• acrylic paint
• paint sealer (found in the acrylic paint aisle)
• scrapbook paper (I used 3 contrasting sheets per box)
• square cardboard (I used a scrap of a cereal box)
• decorations (I bought a package of flower decorations from the scrapbook aisle of my local craft store)
• printed out black and white photo (see Step 3 for details)
• sandpaper
• 4 brads (optional)
• wood block letter
• hot glue gun and Mod Podge
  

Step One: Paint Shadow Box and Sides of Letter

You'll want to remove the glass, or use blue painters tape if you have it, so you don't cover the glass in paint. I just roughly brushed on a layer of pink, letting some of the brown frame show through. I liked the effect, but you can paint yours however you like! Then, use the paint sealer once the paint dries. Allow your box to dry completely.

For the letter, just paint the sides. You don't have to seal it.

Step Two: Line the Back of the Box, the Letter, and the Cardboard Square with Paper

I brushed on a layer of Mod Podge craft glue and attached the scrapbook paper. Once the glue had dried, I trimmed off the extra paper around the edges. On the letter, I gently sanded the edges, to rough it up. The cardboard square I added black paper to, and then sanded the edges, too.

Step Three: Making the Vintage-style Photo

I opened up my photo-editing software (Photoscape, which is a free download) and opened my daughter's first baby photo with 'Editor' Then, I use the Black/White feature, to turn it into a B+W photo.

Photoscape has a lot of antiquing features under the 'Filter' button. I used the 'Vignetting' and the 'Antiquing' effects, to get the look I wanted. Really simple, and so fun to play around with!

Then, I printed the photo on regular white paper, cut it out, and attached it to the black cardboard square, with a brad at each corner. Last, I added a silk flower to the corner, to make it absolutely stinkin' adorable.

Step Four: Glue it all in!

Okay, I'm gonna tell you something that may cause you to gasp in alarm.... I just hot glued the shirts and baby hat to the back of my papered box back. Really. I'm not afraid of a lil' bit o' glue, and the way I figured it was this: I have my keepsake and I don't plan on changing it.

If you are afraid to potentially destroy your keepsake, by all means, just tack the sucker in with a pushpin or something.

I gently set the shirts on the papered backing and glued. I did not smooth them out, and love the effect of the gentle folds. The hat and diaper, I just glued on top of the shirt. Then, I glued the flowers around the top of the box backing.

For the letter and vintage photo, I added a line of hot glue to the base of each, and glued them onto the inside base of the box. I angled them in slightly, so that they had more visual interest.

Once all the glue dried (Yay for hot glue!) I just stuck the backing back in the box frame and VOILA! Cutest shadow box EVER.

And a cheap and easy keepsake to show off to everyone you know. Bragging rights are always in order and trust me... all the other moms will be jealous.

Do you plan on making one? Or have you made another project or recipe that you have found on The Mama Dramalogues?
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xoxo,