Fancy Keepsake Box DIY

I'm home from Vermont, but this thing is still on auto pilot, because today I will be at my niece's baptism.  So I thought it would be appropriate to share what I made for her gift.  I haven't been to many baptisms, and this is the first that I am bringing a gift to, so I really had no idea what to give.  I've heard that bonds are a popular gift, but I figured she'd be getting a lot of those, and I wanted to give something a little more thoughtful.  My next thought was something personalized to commemorate this momentous occasion.  When I googled some ideas for personalized baptism gifts I didn't find anything that struck my fancy.  My family isn't religious, and it didn't make much sense (to me) to give my niece something with psalms, or bible quotes, or a giant cross, which seemed to be my only options.  There is a plethora of non-baby-friendly jewelry, giant crosses, and stuffed lambs as gift choices.  I had a really hard time thinking of anything that is baby appropriate and religious, but not overly religious.  

What I came up with is a suped-up wooden treasure box.  I had one of these when I was a kid, and I loved keeping special little things inside of it.  This gift idea seemed the most reflective of me.  I guess it doesn't have much to do with the ritual, but maybe she can store all her new non-wearable crosses  in it.  Or I imagine she'll be receive lots of pretty jewelry today. 

I bought a small oval shaped wooden box from Michael's, and I used a bunch of scraps of special decorative papers, and applied them to the box with Mod Podge.  

Here is the wooden box after I glued all my pieces down.  Sorry I don't have any pics of the process.  I simple traced the different parts of the box on the pieces I wanted to use, then cut them out.  I played with their placement before I started glueing them down.  Once I started gluing I had to keep going, because I was layering the next piece under the previous piece.  I covered the whole thing with paper and Mod Podge, and then I gave it a couple extra coats of Mod Podge.  

I painted the interior and the top lip of the box with acrylic paint.  They call this color ocean breeze.  I liked using non-traditional girl colors, plus of course a little pink.  All the patterns and colors I picked work perfectly together.  

Once I had enough coats of paint on, and everything had dried for at least twenty minutes I coated the whole box in satin varnish.  I applied three coats.  

To finish the box off, on the inside of the lid I wrote Annabel's name, and the date of her baptism.  

I also added a super cute Martha Stewart rocking horse fabric sticker to the top.  I hope she cherishes it as much as I enjoyed making it, but if it ends up in a closet collecting dust, I think I discovered a new thing I'm good at making.   

Well I hope ya'll had a great weekend, and happy DIYing, chris!