DIY Cassette Tape Shadow Box

I’ve written before about my love of music. About how I credit my dad with starting it, my grandpa for encouraging it, and how one of the very first things I bonded with my husband over was the CDs we had in common. 

This tape is the first one my dad ever made for me, and it’s one of the things I would grab in the event of a fire. That’s how much I love it. I no longer have a cassette player, and I’ve put all of the songs into an Apple Music playlist. I had thought off and on about putting the tape into a shadow box to display it, but I couldn’t decide exactly how I wanted to do so. Maybe I was afraid to do it. I’m glad I finally went for it, because it turned out even better than I’d imagined.

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The supplies for this came together coincidentally, and I think it was meant to be. First, I discovered I had one frame left from this three-pack of 8×8 shadow box frames. The same day I found it, I had the thought to check out the pack of canvases I’d bought on a whim at Michaels. As it turns out, they’re 8×8! 

Using a hard canvas board solved the dilemma of what hard surface to attach the cassette tape to. Of course it isn’t very heavy, but it’s heavy enough that I was concerned about it pulling down a paper backdrop. After the fact, I had the thought that I could have ModPodged a collage onto the back of the frame. There are some really cool possibilities there.

Here’s how I made my shadow box

I sketched out my rainbow on the canvas in pencil, and then filled in the lines with my watercolors. I almost stopped right there and framed the painting as-is because I love it so much. But I had a plan… so I kept going. (I may have to paint another rainbow just because.)

Once the paint had dried, I figured out how I wanted to position the tape and insert. When I was absolutely sure I had it right, I used the mounting squares to attach it the insert, and a small Command strip to attach the tape.

Since I knew it was going to be a snug fit, I cleaned the glass really well before I closed up the frame. That turned out to be a good plan.

Because… Even though I knew the canvas would fit snugly, I wasn’t counting on the canvas being quite as tight a fit as it was. Fortunately, my husband was sure he could make it work. He did! We had to pull out the metal tabs to do it, and then he had to press pretty hard on the canvas to get it in there. One corner of the canvas got a tiny bit bent in the process, but you can’t tell from the front. I was prepared to tape off the back to secure it, but that wasn’t necessary. That canvas isn’t going anywhere!

There was no way to fit the back of the frame that came with it back inside, so there’s no hanger anymore. That isn’t a problem for me, since I prefer to use Command strips to hang almost everything anyway.

I finally hung this up in the new little gallery I created in the alcove outside of my craft room. I like that you can walk right up to the wall and read the song titles. This is just the beginning of the gallery, but it makes me so happy.

Do you have any special items you’d like to display in a shadow box? Or have you already done it? Tell me all about it in the comments below!

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Happy crafting!