Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Art of Keeping Keepsakes

I love keepsakes.  Maybe I'm a hoarder.  Maybe I'm just sentimental about visual and tangible reminders of the past.  Whatever the case, I love keepsakes.  For the past six years, I have kept a box for every school year, and a few extra boxes for side trips, such as my trip to Wales in 2009 and my study abroad in China in 2011.  I keep lots of things in my boxes...things like movie tickets, football game tickets, programs, pressed flowers, notes, etc.  I even have a vending machine plastic "engagement" ring from some of my very silly friends my freshman year of college.  Normally I just recycle an old shoe box and decorate it with magazine clippings, brown paper bags, ripped up Starbucks cozies, and other things I might have collected that year that will give each box individuality.

Here are a few of my boxes in my closet.  The bottom one is my senior year of high school (about the cold quote, I was always sick in high-school which made the quote relevant to my life. haha...seems weird now), the top right is freshman year of college, and top left is what I used for my study abroad in China.  As you can see, as college has gone by, I've gotten a little lazier. :)

Now, since I just got engaged, I'm starting a new box for very special things from Tyler. I will continue my other box for this year, however I'm using a wooden box my grandma gave me to hold special things from the man I'm going to marry.  I'm excited, and I think this time of my life qualifies for a "grown up" box.

 This is my "grown up" keepsake box.

As you would have read about my engagement in my last post, I decided to preserve some of the flowers that Tyler used to propose to me.  I let the flowers hang dry for about a week.  My mom had a plain white cardboard watch box that she gave me to protect the flowers, so I lined the bottom with the square, compact cotton swabs, then decorated the outside.  I just measured a piece of scrapbook paper to fit and folded and glued it around the outside of the box just like you would wrap a gift box with a removable lid.  I then wrote a little story on the inside of the lid about the story of the flowers for a little sentimental charm.  :)


*I might change the cotton swabs to something else later, but I mainly like that the coarse texture helps prevent the flowers from moving around and crumbling since they are brittle.


Oh, and I had some time to play with my camera last night since I worked the graveyard shift, so I got a more detailed picture of my engagement ring.  I can't help but share.  :)


Beautiful, right?  I think my "Coffee-Darling" did well.  I love it!

That is all, until later.  Next time I might show off a few old keepsakes, and maybe some new crafts if I get around to them.

-Saxon

3 comments:

  1. Where did he find that awesome ring? It's so perfect for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ask him. He is an unwilling subject. haha He tells me, "You don't need to know that!" haha

    ReplyDelete

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