4 Easy Baby Shadow Box Ideas for Keepsakes

I was too exhausted and overwhelmed to make a baby keepsake box for both my kids but I wish someone had for me.

Baby keepsake boxes make great personalized gifts for new mothers. Speaking from experience, they will look back and really appreciate it. That initial few months of a newborn seem to just go by in one big blur.

I love the idea of making a keepsake box using a shadow box. The possibilities for customization are endless. In addition to photos and other flat decorative cutouts, you can add additional memorabilities like their newborn wrist band or even a cute onesie or socks.

Shadow boxes are also really flexible when it comes to displaying your keepsake box. It can just sit on the dresser or hang on the wall.

I made a couple of designs here but in general layouts fall into a few camps. But first, a few material recommendations:

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Materials for a shadow box for baby keepsakes

Shadow Box – I like lighter colored frames for baby shadow boxes. Here is one that I have from Amazon that has a linen backing in case you want to pin or glue piece directly to the backing. I also like this set of more rustic wood shadow box frames as well and have several of these in my collection too.

Cardstock – I cut my shapes out with my Cricut and I highly recommend cardstock with colored cores. Here are a few of my favorite brands:

  • Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
  • Cricut Joy Insert Card Packs – You don’t have to use these with the Cricut Joy, they are nice material kids for cardmaking.
  • Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
  • Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
  • Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
  • Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.

Glue – I recommend glue that does not warp the cardstock. Here are a few of my favorite brands that I use frequently:

Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.

Templates – These shadow box printable templates and Cricut Shadow box ideas are available in both SVG and PDF formats for free in my resource library.

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    Personalized Baby Shadow Boxes Ideas

    All babies are born are their own special snowflake so their keepsake boxes should be no different.

    Floral Monogram Shadow Box Frame Ideas

    I love adding a monogram or name to the glass pane covering the keepsake items.

    If you are making a baby shadow box as a gift and don’t have the items from the baby, this is a great way to customize the design with a base design of paper flowers or other design.

    Check out all my free rolled paper flower templates and tutorials for the paper flowers to put in the box.

    Jungle themes gender neutral baby shadow box

    Not sure about the gender yet and still want to make something ahead of time? I’d suggest a theme with a gender-neutral color theme like jungle animals.

    Simple newborn baby shadow box ideas

    You don’t need to make a shadow box super busy jammed pack with stuff to make it special. Sometimes a cute interior frame and a few words are enough.

    Balloons inspired keepsake box for babies

    Is scrapbooking your thing? Then cute cutouts and layered shapes make for a perfect baby shadow box as well.

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    In case some of your are not familiar with Shadow Boxs. Basically, a Shadow Box is a case with a transparent front, either plastic or glass, usually use to display various objects such as jewelry or mementos. We are going to do one this time, but you need not worry. This is not as complicated as you would expect.

    Since this is a baby shadow box, we will make it adorable! As we go on with the craft, you can personalize it as much as you can. I made sure to prepare four easy baby box ideas as a start. Pick what works for you.

    Shadow Box can also be of any size. You can use it as a present during baby showers or the baby’s birthday. The baby shadow box could be curated for the baby or the mother. Either way, any mom would love to have this. Who would not love to receive a gift personalized for them? Don’t you agree? Just imagine the mother receiving the baby shadow box. She will surely display it immediately.

    In making your very own baby shadow box, you also need to have an idea of what to put it in. It is not enough for you to build the shadow box itself. Would you like to place some baby mementos? How about some small keepsakes? You can put anything there, just make sure it is not heavy. At the same time, try asking the parents what they would like to be put in the shadow box. And if you are the parent, ask yourself.

    1 thought on “4 Easy Baby Shadow Box Ideas for Keepsakes”

    1. Nisreen Alkhayer

      These are amazing thanks for sharing, will you be willing to share how you made the owl on the brach and the elephant holding balloons? I am a newbie!!

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