Baby Shower Keepsakes to Treasure

There is nothing that is treasured as much as baby shower keepsakes that can be looked at and reminisced over after the party is over. While little purchased what-nots can be appreciated too, there is nothing quite like those handmade gifts that make the heart flutter. And what's better is that these are simple to make and lots less expensive.

There are quite a few keepsake ideas which you can look over as possible gifts to create for the mommy-to-be. One such keepsake that is enjoying a popular following these days is the scrapbook. You could of course purchase a basic scrapbook which could be easily filled up with little mementos and other bits of memorabilia.

But why buy when you can make sweet personalized ones of your own? If you want to make life simple, though, it would be just as easy to embellish a blank scrapbook with fabrics or papers in the mommy-to-be's favorite colors and prints and then make up headlines, frames, and spaces for writing down those memories. Headlines which relate to their family and not general ones would make it even more special. Now all she would need to do would be to fill in the blanks and she's done.

In the same vein, an album would provide the same type of enjoyment. But while scrapbooks have little envelopes to hold bigger items, the album would be a container for flatter items like cutouts, prints, and of course photographs from the very start of the pregnancy to the first months of life as a family.

This could be created as well, or simply embellished, by using either a ready made photo album that is personalized with sweet prints in the proper colorways or with a decoupage of images on the cover. The inside could be a truly personal make of meaningful titles, well-wishes, or snippets from poems apart from decorations made of images that you know she'll like. It would be such a pleasure to put those precious photos in a baby photo album like that.

If you know that the mommy-to-be loves to collect more than photos, why not give her a keepsake box instead? A decorated keepsake box, with either a new wood or cardboard base or even a recycled cigar box would be something truly beautiful. Now she'll have space for other things that won't fit even in a scrapbook and can be used for a very long time. Everything from the positive pregnancy test to the baby teeth that will be lovingly collected a few years down the road will have a space in this keepsake box.

A pretty box could be one that is decorated with mixed media. If you use scraps of fabric, paper, paint, and stencils or stamps, you could definitely create something that any new mommy would love to put mementos in. personalize it with the baby's name (or leave a space to put the baby's name) and it will be something that will be treasured for a long time to come.

And don't limit yourself to boxes, either! Look to second-hand and thrift shops for old pasteboard suitcases, cosmetic bags, or even those hatboxes that seemed to grace every closet just a few decades past. Spruced up with a little DIY elbow grease to look like new, these antiques will be much more than collector's items.