My friend Carol and I were sorting out her craft room a couple of months back, and we came across some treasured items belonging to her grandparents and father.
She showed me the cool, vintage eyeglasses belonging to her grandmother and said how she wanted to display them. I suggested displaying them in a shadowbox so she can enjoy them.
Organizers talk a great deal about honoring the things you do love and treasure. If you love something, you should display it or keep it somewhere you can easily enjoy it.
Shadowboxes are a great way to do that. Since many movies are 3-D these days, think of shadowboxes as 3-D art.
Get crafty with your treasures
March is National Craft Month, and creating a shadowbox filled with your treasured objects is a great way to celebrate.
Several years ago, my mother and her three sisters each created a shadowbox with mementos of their parents. My mom lost her own mother when she was 12, and her father at age 18. Each sister had a piece of their mother’s wedding gown, her disintegrated veil, rosary cards, rosaries, eyeglasses and other odds and ends. Mom and my aunts have their shadowboxes to honor their parents’ memories.
I should point out that my mom and the aunts did not cut up my grandmother’s wedding dress. My grandmother herself cut up her own dress to make a dress for the oldest daughter.
Me and my (Barbie©) Shadow(boxes)
Before I moved into my house, I bought a large shadowbox to display my old Barbie© dolls. I lined the back with some vintage-inspired fabric and used Velcro© squares to fasten the dolls to the back of the box.
The finished product, like any shadowbox filled with treasure, is a personal, fun memento, and I plan to make a couple of others too.
Using an unfinished piece of a quilt her grandmother made, my friend Carol lined her shadowboxes and can now display her own treasures.
Some other ideas I’ve seen for shadowboxes include:
- Concert memorabilia.
- Sports memorabilia (gloves, baseball hats, uniforms)
- Travel souvenirs
- Wine cork collections
- Childhood board games and toys
What ideas do you have? What ways do you honor your treasures?
