Maybe we should rename our site Young Shadowbox Love — shadowboxes are totally my thing. I’ve filled them with all kinds of small mementos: calendars with special dates circled, keys from past homes, and even wedding keepsakes. Turning tiny, meaningful objects into a visual display feels like a better choice than shoving them in a closet to collect dust.
For the past three years, while working on our book, I kept an eye out for items that captured the experience. One of my favorite collections from that process was the batch of pencils we used to mark up drafts and layouts. We used different colored pencils for different rounds of edits — one color for a spellchecker pass, another for our editor’s notes, and a third for our own changes — so the pages returned looking like a chaotic, colorful timeline of revisions. Over dozens of edits the pencils wore down, and those stubby little reminders became keepsakes of the whole publishing journey.
I considered framing just the pencils, but I liked the idea of creating a small shadowbox that combined other tactile elements to tell a fuller story. So I gathered textured wallpaper, a fabric swatch, a postcard, and a little personalized rock that nods to Burger — all items that tied back to different stages of the book project — and arranged them together.
To build the shadowbox I used a simple 6 x 6″ frame from Ikea (they’re inexpensive and handy for DIY projects). I cut a piece of textured wallpaper to size for the background, then arranged the pencils and other tokens and attached them with a dab of super glue. I paid attention to composition — grouping the worn pencils together, contrasting the rough rock with the soft fabric swatch — so the finished piece would read as a small, layered memory display.
After gluing everything in place I let the glue cure completely before inserting the backing and sealing the frame. It’s important to let adhesives dry fully when you’re making a shadowbox because once it’s hung the items will be fighting gravity and you don’t want anything shifting.
Instead of putting this little piece into our hallway gallery where it might get visually lost, I gave it a special place in the hall bathroom. It felt right to give the shadowbox its own spot where we can see it regularly — that bathroom is where Clara takes her baths and sits on the potty, so we spend a lot of time there and get to enjoy the display often. We also aren’t worried about steam or moisture, since Clara’s baths are not hot and we don’t use that room as our shower.
The small details around the shadowbox make the spot feel charming — for example, the little bike dish towel I bought as a gag for John now works perfectly as a hand towel by the sink. It’s a reminder that functional items can also be part of a home’s personality.
Shadowboxes are such an easy, high-impact way to preserve memories. If you’re looking for DIY keepsake ideas, try grouping a handful of related objects — worn pencils, ticket stubs, fabric swatches, small notes, or tiny souvenirs — against a textured background and secure them in a shallow frame. The result is a personalized piece of wall art that tells a story and keeps special moments on display instead of tucked away. What small, meaningful things have you put into frames lately? Are you collecting used-up pencils, fabric swatches, or other odd little tokens? I’d love to hear what creative keepsake ideas you’ve tried.