DIY Baby Keepsake Box

I had been dying to put together a keepsake box and my pregnant girlfriend's birthday was the perfect excuse. I found some hat boxes at Ikea that were not only sturdy but a departure from using shoe boxes which I happen to not have on hand at the time (no I am not a shoe freak- plus I usually get my shoes back in the states so I usually ditch the box in favor of bringing back more essential costco goods). I knew that I wanted to the keepsake box to house different moments from her daughter's life and had settled on making little individual boxes to help remember each one of those moments.  

                  

Before buying the smaller boxes to fit into the hat box, I thought of different events/ people that should contribute to the keepsake boxes to decide on the shape and size of the boxes. Some of the ideas were: 

Gifts from the grandparents: 

• A lullaby in grandma or grandpa's native language
• A bedtime story that the grandparents like to read to the baby 
• A trinket that represents grandma and grandpa
• A souvenir from where grandma and grandpa are from
• A  letter to the baby from the grandparents

From Mommy: 

• wristband from hospital
• appointment cards
• first jewelry from mommy 
• sonogram pics
• lock of hair 
• my first tooth

From Daddy: 

• First picture of daddy holding me
• wristband from hospital
• Hospital bed tag with weight and height
• a newspaper clipping from the day I was born
• my first pair of christmas socks

I also knew that the baby would be spending a lot of holidays at the family beach house and would reserve a box for that. 

I then was then able to go to the craft store and find boxes that would accommodate the different ideas for gifts. Luckily most of the boxes that I could find (a very limited selection compared to what I would be able to find at Michael's back home)were made of paper mache which help to keep the project cost effective. I thought about painting them and then covering them with paper, but there was something nice bout the natural and roughness of the paper mache. I was particularly tickled by the suitcase I found for the beach house keepsake box. 

I printed paper out from Mel Stampz who had the chevron, Moroccan tile, and quatrefoil designs that I was looking for. I covered the different boxes each with a different color or design to make sure that they were distinct from one another.  For the boxes from Mom and Dad, I cut out maps with the country showing where mommy and daddy were from - a little nod to the heritage for the baby to think about when she was old enough to appreciate the keepsake box. On the inside lids, I printed out the ideas of what could go into the keepsake boxes and glued them in the inside lids of the boxes. 

For the hat box, I covered the box with wall paper.  The wall paper material was thick enough to smoothly cover the box and also allow me to cut out pieces to make frames on the top and side of the box where pictures of the baby could be put in.  In retrospect, I would have chosen a square box instead of a  round box due to the difficulty of getting the wall paper smoothly over the round edge of the box.  This was a fun 1/2 weekend craft project that I can't wait to do again! Anyone else having a baby soon?