The Ultimate Baby Shoe Gift

Here’s what you do to prepare the presentation of your baby shoe gift:

Five tasks that are completely achievable.  And I’ll show you each of the products I used.

1. Get the Scripture printable.

Go to my Etsy Store, Grammye’s Front Porch, and find the Scripture Prints: Feet, Paths, Steps printable. You’ll get the set of Scriptures that can be printed and cut apart. Each single Scripture will be attached to one of the boxes.  

They can also be printed or saved as a single page for Mom or for the giver of the gift. Card stock is ideal for this project. There are several different versions to suit your preference, and all the instructions for printing come with the package.

Now, start shopping!

2. Find 5-10 pairs of shoes, baby and kid sizes, at whatever stores you like.

Check out seasonal clearance items, and try to vary your selection. I’d recommend starting with size 3 or 4 toddler, not newborn (just because newborns don’t really wear a lot of shoes).

Make your selections over time until you’ve accumulated enough to make the gift. Here’s the thing: If you wind up with some extras, they will get used! And don’t worry too much about the sizes. If you skip a size number it really doesn’t matter. 

We’ll talk about the cost in a minute. 

But here’s a hint: The place to really focus your “deal-finding skills” is on the purchase of the shoes. 

Here’s one more hint: Keep a list in your purse or on your phone, to keep track of what sizes you’ve purchased. Each time you get a pair of shoes, make a quick note of the style and size.

You still have just a little more shopping to do.

3. Start looking for 5-10 containers.

You’re looking for something affordable enough that purchasing several won’t break the bank.  The Container Store formerly had the perfect acrylic lidded boxes, just the right size for baby and toddler shoes. Surprisingly, they were called “shoe boxes.”  And they no longer seem to sell them in kid sizes.

Check out their other products, as well as Walmart.

Also try the storage/housewares section of some of the department stores.  I wanted my containers to be identical, but you may find that using different styles works better for your intentions.

I love the photo boxes that you can buy at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. But even at the sale price I realized it could drive up my total cost.

Whatever you decide, here’s what’s important:  They all need to work with your next purchase: The large container.

4. You need one large container to hold the collection.

Start looking at hampers, bins and boxes. The first time I assembled this gift, I ended up using a cute cloth hamper/bin that is still being used after 8 years! On the next round, I used a tall plastic hamper.

When selecting your individual shoe containers and the large bin to put them in, it helps to know how many individual containers the large bin will hold. The hamper illustrated in today’s post holds 5 of the individual containers.  And five pairs of shoes is definitely adequate and will make a great gift. 

You can see how it helps to give a lot of thought to the final product before you actually make your purchases.

When you’ve gathered all your goods, it’s time to put it all together!

5. Now, assemble, and decide how you’ll decorate the gift.

This is always the fun part, right?

You’ll set aside the store shoe boxes, and place each pair of shoes into one of the boxes you purchased.

Now, attach one of the Scriptures. Use decorative tape, glue stick, or glue dots. Whatever works.

Then decorate the box.

Finally, all the boxes will stack neatly into the larger container and you’ll attach a bow, flower, card, or whatever you like to the outside.

(If you like, you can enclose a single sheet of the Scriptures in the gift that contains all the verses. You can also keep a second sheet for the giver.)

Start thinking about useful baby items: Pacifiers, socks, hair bows, etc. These make really nice embellishments for your gift. 

What if I describe what I did, and then show you some pictures?

Here’s how I did it:

This time I decided to to decorate the lid of each individual box, and then add a nice bow to the large container.

First, I found great individual boxes, a super affordable option at around $2 each. I considered a lot of options, and ended up delighted with the clear lidded boxes to showcase each pair. They were easy to “dress up” to fit the occasion.

It was easy to find a tall plastic hamper for less than $10.  It took almost no time to weave some ribbon between the openings and attach silk flowers. I toyed with the idea of a canvas container also.  This time, though, I felt like my little boxes would fit perfectly in this plastic hamper.

I grabbed some fake flowers off the clearance aisle for $1.50.  I tried them out with the bow in different ways until I was happy.

I used some ribbon I had at home.

Also, I had a small collection of washi tape that helped me with attaching the Scripture cards to the lids.

All that was fun, and it was looking really nice. Still, it wasn’t quite  “cute” enough.

I found some baby headbands on clearance. Each 3-pack cost only $2.50. Those baby headbands fit perfectly around the lids, which still easily snapped onto the boxes. Genius, right?

(Are you catching on to my favorite designer, Clearance, yet? He has a rack in almost every store.)