Once you get married, go on a trip, have a baby, or any other special occasions, you have souvenirs or keepsakes you hang on to for memories. Most of the time we just put them in shoe box inside another box and that box gets put in a closet or garage.

I wanted somewhere out in the open that I could be reminded of the memories, be easily accessible, and be part of my decor without being too cluttered. Some people make shadow boxes for their keepsakes. Shadow boxes can be beautiful, but you can’t have a ton of those everywhere. Plus they can get really expensive.

My solution was these boxes that I got from Michael’s.
Why are these boxes so great?

– They fit 8.5 x 11 paper
Most of the boxes I have found do not fit 8.5 x 11 pages and do not fit 8×10 photos.

– They come unfinished so you can paint them any color.
– It comes with a metal label tag.
– They are shallow and flat for easy stacking.
– They are cheap!
At Michael’s they are $7.99, but with your 40% (or 50%) coupon, they are only $4.80 – $4.00.

One box uses about one bottle of craft paint. You can also use Mod Podge to seal the paint, but it is not necessary.

I chose colors that went with my decor.

Here’s what I put inside our wedding box:

We went to Hawaii for our Honeymoon and here is what is inside.
I had some under water pictures and some 8×10 photos that I also have in this box, but they are layered underneath.

There is nothing inside the Mexico box yet because we haven’t gone yet. It’s in the works, so we will have something in there soon 🙂

For the labels, I just typed up what I wanted to label the boxes on a plain sheet of paper. Then I just cut it to fit inside the label tag.

Happy Crafting!