DIY Idea: Shadow Box

As we traversed the Western US, Megan and I knew that we were going to gather souvenirs along the way.  We also obviously were going to be taking about 100 pictures a day for a month (and that isn't really exaggerating.)  We needed to come up with a way to display our trip in a way that would be creative, interesting, and unique.

In a combination of ideas we came up with the shadow box idea.  We could do pictures in the background, put souvenirs on the shelf or tacked up on the backing and this would be a wonderful display of our massive trip.  Then the idea hit me that instead of going to Hobby Lobby to buy a massive shadow box for $100 we could try to make one ourselves.  I remembered seeing on Instructables.com a shadow box that was made from an old pallet or skid.  This way the entire project from getting the lumber, to making the box, to filling the box would be completely personal and 100% unique.

The Skid

I got a skid and began construction or really destruction.  In order to get the wood I pretty much had to destroy the skid.  But I had to be delicate with it because the slats of wood would crack when being pried away from the nails.  I split more than a few but started to improve as the destruction went along and by the last slat I had enough long pieces to make the top and bottom and I could use the good ends of the cracked pieces to make the sides.
 

All together I had 3 long pieces, 2 medium pieces, and 5 short pieces that were useable.  The long pieces were about 35 inches long, medium pieces about 20 inches and short pieces about 10 inches long.  I didn't have a blueprint for my shadow box but I knew I wanted to break up the large box by making smaller rectangles and by doing so adding support to the structure.

I tried out a few displayed and decided, not surprisingly that I liked the aesthetics of a symmetrical design but I didn't want 4 or 6 equal rectangles.  Using some wood glue and finishing nails I constructed the main structure and then with some measuring, remeasuring, cutting and nailing I put together the inside shelf and supports. 

Shadow Box

In total, the project took about 2 hours split pretty evenly between destruction and construction.  Now I am left with an empty shadow box and my ideas are starting to flow with how to fill it with our trip's memories. 

I am thinking that a map of the US or the states we traveled through glued on to a piece of hard cardboard would do well as backing.  Then we can trace our route through all the states.  We can add pictures throughout the entire shadow box to complete the background.  As for the shelves, we tried to buy smaller souvenirs on our trip in the thought that:
1. we were going to get a lot of souvenirs and if they were big it would tough to display them.
2. We didn't have a ton of space in the car for a collection of big souvenirs.
3. Big stuff costs more and we didn't want to spend all of our money on souvenirs.

For the most part, we have small nick-knack type souvenirs that will display perfectly in the shadow box. We bought key chains, magnets, pins, small replica statues, and the occasional coin or medallion.  We also tried to pick up a rock or a pebble from each place we hiked or stayed or stopped at.  Obviously this worked better in wilderness places and not as much in LA but if there is room in the shadow box to display the rocks with a small location tag the shelves will be filled with those as well.