Household Hints By Rosemary ~ Shadowboxes

Still on framing projects and one of the nicest I can think of is to copy an idea from a friend of mine who is a very good scrapbook maker. When her granddaughter was born she made a memory shadowbox for the baby's room.
Because I like simple, easy and quick crafts this one really caught my attention. However, it takes a bit of time to collect the bits and pieces that make the project worthwhile. The items to collect are, the birth announcement from the newspaper, the baby's hospital bracelet, the mother's too, if you wish, congratulations cards from grandparents or other close family/friends. Baby's first picture is a must, perhaps a pair of booties or a baby bonnet and a copy of the “It's a girl/boy” card sent out with the birth details such as day, time and weight. You may also want to include one or two pressed flowers from well-wisher bouquets, but I wouldn't recommend it as they will eventually discolour or break up.
The shadowbox I saw had the baby's name in small wooden letters painted and glued to the top of the frame, but you could also put it inside above the display depending on how much room you have.
On a pink background, you could also use yellow, or green, each item was outlined with either lace or a small paper frame, decorations such as little dresses, tiara's, dolls and doll carriages were scattered around the open areas. Although this is a form of scrapbooking, it's easy to find the decorations to make a pretty design.
For a little boy's box, decorate with baseball gloves, hockey sticks, soccer balls or puppies, on blue, or green. Squares cut from old jeans are a good background for items, just make a cut for each corner of the picture or announcement and tuck it in.
As much as I hate the idea of cutting up a book, fairy tale books are available at second hand book stores with some lovely illustrations. Humpty Dumpty and little Miss Muffet cutouts are a nice idea too. If there is leftover fabric or wallpaper from the baby's first room this can also be used as a background or decoration.
Taking it further, it's also a nice idea to do a Christmas frame, from their first visit to Santa, to the most recent.
Anything that's not replaceable should not be glued down, for instance in the case of a hospital bracelet or baby booties, it's better to use a pin. Have a copy made of the baby's first picture and save the original in a safe place. Try in all cases to use acid free paper.
Regardless of how old the “baby” is, it's still a very nice idea, and would even be appreciated by an older child. The children in our family like to look at photo albums of themselves when they were little and hear stories about what their favourite toys, bedtime stories and games were so a shadowbox, of their arrival and how we celebrated it, is a nice souvenir.