Baby's box

As I'm counting down the final weeks of my pregnancy, it's no surprise that I've got baby crafts on the brain. This weekend I noticed a memory box that I made for my son shortly after he was born. It sits on a shelf in his room and I see it everyday, but for some reason it caught my eye, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's so simple, yet very sweet and functional.

All this project takes is a wooden box (found at a craft store), acrylic paint, some decorative paper, Modge Podge (decoupage medium), and a couple of sponge brushes.


The first step is to paint your box, inside and out. Easy! Then you get to decide what will go on the box. I chose to decorate the top and sides with various cute animals cut from scrapbooking paper, but this is really where you could let your imagination run wild. Decorate with anything you find appealing- don't limit yourself to what immediately comes to mind when you think "baby".

I took some inspiration from a onesie my son had and duplicated a couple of the animals it had on it. The other animals came from somewhere online, though now I'm not sure where.

Cut out your paper images (if that's what you decide to do) and "paint" the area you'll be adhering them to with some of the Modge Podge using a sponge brush. Apply the paper pieces, carefully working out any air bubbles as you go. Then put on another coat or two of Modge Podge all over so everything is sealed and has a uniform sheen. I used a tiny hole punch and black paper to make the eyes on each animal and also chose to outline everything with a very fine Sharpie marker (this proved trickier than I expected, so go slow and try to be very steady if you do this). For his name on top I just used a die cut machine at my local craft store to punch them out for me.

Now for the fun part- filling it! I can't stand to throw away things that are from my children's earliest days, so this box became the safe and pretty way for me to store all of Hakan's little newborn treasures.
Inside you'll find a card I made of his footprints on his one week birthday, our hospital bracelets, his hospital crib cards, the newspaper clipping announcing his birth, onesie-shaped congratulations card from the ladies at church, sweet socks that he wore for his blessing, first and last binkies, one of the first pairs of felt shoes I attempted to make... ...teeny tiny hospital cap and another made by great-grandma, his hospital shirt, the tiniest newborn diaper, sonogram prints, bib from the university Hubby and I attended, and one of the birth announcements that I made.
This box contains items that I'll treasure forever, and maybe someday (if I can stand to part with it) will be able to give to Hakan when he's grown.

I really want to make another of these boxes for our newest addition. This time I'm thinking I'll go with a woodland animals theme... owl, hedgehog, squirrel, bird, deer...

Can't wait to get started!

(P.S. Even if you don't have a baby in your house to make one of these for, it would make an awesome gift for someone who's expecting or recently given birth!)