DIY Newborn Shadow Boxes – a Memorable DIY

You won’t believe how easy it is to make the perfect customized newborn shadow box.  Learn how to make a personalized baby shadow box with a few basic supplies and keepsakes!

I have seen some pretty creative newborn shadow box ideas lately, and knew this was something I wanted to do with our twins.  There is a little corner in the hallway outside their bedroom; I felt like this would be a perfect place to display some newborn mementos.

Enter my decision to make two newborn shadow boxes with all of our keepsakes from the hospital.

Here’s what I kept:

• hospital hat and kimono top (the ones given to us by the hospital)
• the footprints from their “souvenir birth certificates”
• ankle bracelet identification tags – I used two in Miss. B’s shadow box, since the back of hers had a stamp that reads “twin #2”
• the identification card from the hospital bassinet
• the socks the babies wore home from the hospital (so small!)
• a photo from the night they were born – I edited the pictures and reduced the color saturation level by about 50%

I bought two shadow boxes from Michaels during a BOGO sale as well as pink & blue scrapbook paper and two little wooden letters – R and B.  I painted the letters pink and blue to match the paper I would be mounting some of my keepsakes on.

First, I arranged everything on the back board – walking away and coming back with fresh eyes to make sure I liked the positioning of all my items.  I decided to do a mirror image of my first arrangement in the second shadow box.  This way the boxes are not too similar.

I displayed my two newborn shadow boxes outside the nursery.  This was for several reasons.  One: I’m not a big fan of hanging newborn pictures in the nursery itself.  I think the nursery should be a room for the babies to grow in, explore, and enjoy.  Two: I wanted to keep the shadow boxes close to the nursery as a reminder of how much they have grown and changed.  Three: The corner just outside the nursery was pretty empty looking.

My sister gave us a collage frame filled with newborn and baptism pictures, which I decided to hang on the opposite wall from the shadow boxes.  I love this project, and constantly find myself looking over at the keepsakes and telling myself I can’t believe just how tiny they were, and how blessed we are to have two happy and healthy babies in our lives.

UPDATE: Here are the shadow boxes in our new home.  This is still one of my favorite DIY projects!