Memories Don't Belong in a Box.

Scrapbooking is one of my favorite time killers. Unfortunately, it kills A LOT of time. I rarely have the hours to spare to create new pages for my multiple books. I have one for Piper, an Army scrapbook for Paul, and another for friends and family. The one that has the most pictures and memorabilia waiting to be put together lovingly in an organized, crafty fashion is Piper's. Before she was born, I knew the keepsakes would pile up, so I bought a little cardboard craft box at Hobby Lobby. She's six months old now and the items I've been saving are starting to get a little ridiculous! (I may have to rent a storage unit to hold the things I save over the next 17 1/2 years!)

The box was a little boring just sitting there in a closet with no decoration. Sure, it collects meaningful items, but it was also collecting dust. I wanted to put it out in the open to be admired while it holds all the memories of our little girl. (At least temporarily, until I can scrapbook them all!)

 I started with these three things:

My trusty glue gun and glue sticks
Mod Podge
A cardboard craft box
And you can't forget the decorations!

I chose items from inside the box to make it pretty.

Smaller photos, scraps or things I didn't mind trimming to fit, if necessary.

I did a dry run (so to speak) before breaking out the Mod Podge. Not every photo would fit and some of the items overlapped each other or the edge of the lid. No big deal to me! I was going for a collage effect, anyway.

Rather than coat an entire area with Mod Podge and start haphazardly attaching pictures, I used a paintbrush to coat the back of each piece and attach them one at a time. After I finished placing everything in the right spots, I trimmed the overhang and coated the entire collage in Mod Podge with a sponge brush to seal and protect the pictures. Any bulky items were attached with hot glue after the Mod Podge dried. I also hot glued ribbon and lace around the lid of the box to fancy it up a little.

Ta da!! Now, these beautiful pictures and keepsakes are no longer locked away in a box or book. This is a true memory box.