It has become a tradition for me to make a memory box after each one of our trips. These small, flat boxes are the perfect place to hold memorabilia such a pictures, maps, ticket stubs and shells. I love having a stack of our trip memories on my shelf and they are quite the conversation starter when friends come over. This is my third memory box and I love it just as much as the first one. You can find the one I made for our New York City Trip here and our Disneyland trip here.
This box represents our latest trip to the coast of Washington and Oregon so I made the box over in blues and seashells.
For this project you will need:
- a flat wood box with a latch
- paint (I used this awesome new Color Shift paint)
- a photo from your trip
- a Cricut
- Cricut Tools
- white vinyl
- Mod Podge
- foam brush
- Memorabilia from your latest trip
Paint your entire box, including the bottom and the sides. I used a turquoise type color to go with the beach theme, but you can change them up however you want. I used a new type of color shift paint, that gives the entire box a little bit of a shimmer, which I love.
After the box is dry, find a photo from your trip for the top of the box. I usually use a picture that is about 3.5×5 in size. 4×6 pictures take up just a little too much of the lid. Add a thin coat of Mod Podge to the back of your photo and secure it down to the middle of the box. Add a thin coat of Mod Podge over top of the photo to seal it to the box.
Hit the green new project button in the right hand corner of the New Cricut Design Space. Hit the images button and search for a seashell that you like, and hit insert image in the bottom righ corner. Copy and paste the shell a bunch of types and then resize them to be all different sizes. You can find the shells I used here. Cut the shells out of white vinyl on the vinyl setting of your machine.
These shells are such simple designs, after weeding the excess off, you can simply peel the shells off of the backing and apply them to your memory box.
Once your memory box is finished fill it with ticket stubs, park maps, photos and anything else you brought home from your trip.
I use my Cricut Explore Air 2 machine on almost a daily basis. I love creating decor, shirts and memorabilia like in this post. Cricut has some amazing tools to help make your projects easier. They have everything you need to cut, weed and get your designs places exactly where you want them on your projects. You can get a tool set for as low as $14.99 if you watch the sales. I am going to go over some of my favorite tools and what they do to help you with your next project.
A basic tool set comes with everything you see in the photo above, minus the scoring stylus. The larger tool set comes with everything here, plus a paper trimmer, which is really helpful when you are trying to use up all of your vinyl and heat transfer scraps.
Scoring Stylus– This fun tool lets you score cards and projects using your Cricut. If you just want score lines instead of full cuts, this is your go to tool!
Cricut Scissors– These are my all time favorite scissors for crafting. They have a micro tip blade to help you get small precision cuts. They also come with a cover which makes them the perfect scissors for crafting on the go.
Scraper– I use the scraper for two different things. I love using it to scrap excess stuff off of my cutting mats, but what I really love using it for is to smooth vinyl on surfaces. I will rub the scraper over my vinyl several times before I pull up my transfer tape to make sure my vinyl really is down and secure.
Spatula– This clever little tool makes lifting things off of our mat easy!
Cricut Tweezers– These are not your average tweezers. Especially made for crafting, these tweezers have a reverse grip feature which lets you handle little tiny embellishments with ease.
Cricut Weeder– This little hook is hands down the tool I use the most. It is perfect for weeding tiny little cuts and tracking down little pieces that may have gotten away from you. It makes separating heat transfer so much easier. This is the tool I think every one needs! I have multiple around my craft room to help out with different tasks!
What tools do you use to make your projects like the Beach Vacation Memory Box?
We travel a lot and I have never made a memory box! What a great creative idea. It is now even a better idea because we have a toddler and it would be great to come back to look at these. I love that is is easy to create!
Well this is a cute memory box!!! I would love to do something like this for my vacations! How fun!!
I remember collecting shells as a young girl. A box like this would have been perfect for holding them together.
This is such a beautiful way to remember those special beach trips! My husband and I leave Sunday for our annual island vacation and I need to make one of these memory boxes when I get back. It’s a great way to store vacation mementos.
Making a memory box or maybe a treasure box for the grandkids would be wonderful way to store items from a trip. The grandkids could help make the box and really make it their own.
This is such a good idea. We just got back from a beach vacation and I was trying to find some creative ways in order to display pictures. This would be fun to do.
What an awesome looking way to put together a memory box, it was good to learn more about the different tools as the circut always looks like such an interesting tool.
That scraper for the Cricut looks really handy for making projects. I have been thinking about getting a Cricut and the tools to go with it.
This is my first time hearing about a vacation memory box. I have to say, I love the idea!
There is always something special you can make with a Cricut machine. I love this vacation memory box idea. We can make one for each child for them to keep and treasure until they grow up. Thanks for sharing the idea. I hope I can make one as pretty as yours.
What a great set of tools! I love how that memory box turned out. I’d love to try this.
OH my gosh, I love this idea so much! I need to make something like this for our summer trips!
This is such a neat idea! It would be cool to make one of these for every vacation using one special picture.
I love memory boxes but I never tried making my own. You made it sound so easy but I love what you made.
I need to make memory boxes for our travels since I have a cricut air 2. This is a cute idea!
What a great craft and project! Love this idea and those tools!
That’s a cute memory box. I have seen this brand before, sounds like a very useful tool for Diy projects!