Its that time of year where everyone is thinking about gift giving. To me giving someone a gift shouldn’t be done out of obligation for a date on the calendar, but because you want to. And I think the best way to show that you want to is by taking a little time and effort along with some thought and creating a handmade gift for the special people in your life. So I teamed up with Kreg to participate in their Holiday Campaign and created a plan to build a DIY Keepsake Gift Box.

This post contains affiliate links. This post is sponsored by Kreg Tool & BuildSomething.com. All opinions, pictures, design, and published plans are my own!

I am really excited about this piece because it is so versatile and you can finish it so many ways to fit the person you are giving it to. First it acts as a gift box, holding maybe a couple bottles of wine, some chocolates, or even socks!

You choose what to put inside for whomever you are giving it to. And then they can use the box as a keepsake box, a centerpiece box, a box to hold bath towels…. really the possibilities are endless.

Oh and the best part it is so easy to build! You can get fancy and build it with hardwoods or stick with plywood scraps you have lying around. It literally one takes 1 - 1x6 board to build and a small 1/4” plywood scrap. I built two different boxes to give you a couple of ideas.

The finishes on these boxes really give them their personality! One box I made to look like an actual wine bottle crate. I added a custom message on it with a paper transfer. A paper transfer is a super easy way to make your piece just a little more special. All you need to do is create a design, print it on a laser printer in a mirror image format, lay it out on your piece and transfer by rubbing acetone on the paper! Oh, be sure to seal the piece of wood after the transfer to hold the message on!

Another way to customize each keepsake gift box is to add some handles to them. This is super easy to layout using the Kreg Cabinet Hardware Jig. You just need to determine how far you want them done and set that on the jig. Then determine the screw placement, based on your pull, and then set that on the jig. Once the jig is set you find the center of the box and match that with the centerline on the jig and then drill your holes! So easy and so accurate! Really takes the guess work out of installing hardware. It even works for knobs!

So are you ready to start building the special people in your life their very own DIY Keepsake Gift Box? If so, the check out the FREE plans on Build Something’s website. And if you didn't know BuildSomething.com is Kreg's DIY project plan site and you can find all sorts of awesome plans for pretty much any project you need to accomplish!

Don’t have time to build them right now? PIN IT and safe it for later!