Do you still have your baby’s first socks, your positive pregnancy test, and other keepsakes of your baby that you just don’t know how to display them?
Then this tutorial to make your own shadow box for your babies memories might be the perfect idea for you.
I’ve had this idea to make shadow boxes for keepsakes since the baby was born and just now got to it when she is a toddler already.
But hey – better late than never right?
And the best part is you can find those little shadow boxes at the Dollar Tree right now.
You can find them where they have all the frames and it’s supposed to be a piggy bank but we’ll use it as a shadow frame.
The boxes you can get at the Dollar Tree and not that big so keep that in mind.
And if your Dollar Tree is out you can also get them on Amazon in different sizes.
There are affiliate links in this post, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will be compensated if you click through and take action. For full disclosure click here.
What you need:
- Piggy bank Shadow frames from Dollar Tree
- Or Shadow frames from Amazon in a different size
- 100% acetone
- cotton balls
- glue and tissue paper
- acrylic paint
- Your keepsakes
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– Homemade edible paint
– What to include in your baby memory book
How to make the shadow box
It’s pretty simple to make the shadow box and on top of all the material you’ll need a little bit of elbow grease.
- Work on your keepsake box in a well-ventilated room and then start by taking the piggy bank apart so you can remove the writing on the glass.
- Take a cotton ball and dunk it in the hundred percent acetone.
Start rubbing that cotton ball above the writing on the glass to get rid of it. It might feel like it’s taking forever and never coming off but it will so just keep going.
If you do have fake nails or wearing nail polish be careful or use a glove because the acetone will take off your nail polish and even your fake nails too.
Clean the glass with glass cleaner to make sure there’s no dirt or fingerprints anywhere.
If you just bought a new shadow frame you can skip this step and not even have to mess with the acetone.
- Once all the writing is gone you can take care of the background of your keepsake box.
You can either leave it as is with the colorful background, paint over it with acrylic paint or use glue and tissue paper (which is what I did).
Either way you will have to use a few layers of paint or tissue paper to cover up the design that is originally in the frame.
- After everything is dry you can then add the memories you want to see in the shadow frame.
I chose to use a newborn size diaper, my positive pregnancy test, and the first Bow my baby was wearing as a newborn.
Use a little bit of glue or tape to keep everything in place.
- Once you’re satisfied with how everything looks like you can put the frame back together.
- All you need to do now is find the perfect place to put your keepsake box.
- Make sure to wash your hands really good to get acetone off that may have come in contact with your skin.
I hope this tutorial was helpful for you and you were able to make your own Keepsake frame on a budget .
This could also be a great gift for a close friend that just had a baby.
What are you going to add to your baby Keepsake frame?
Let us know in the comments.
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