DIY Family Time Capsule

Make a DIY Family Time Capsule today. You may have found this blog due to our recent article in the Women’s World magazine (cover date 9-28-15) discussing how to make a Family Time Capsule. Welcome.

In this fast, instant world, have you longed to find ways to help your family bond more. So many more kids and adults are spending more time on the internet and their cell phones. What about the good old days when we gathered around the table and talked about our days?

Try something different for a change and make a DIY Family Time Capsule together. This is a project that will make you think. Where do you think your family will be in 20 or 30 years? Who will have children or grandchildren by then? Will everyone still live in the same state together after your kids are married? What do you think technology will look like 20 or 50 years from now? Will we have flying cars by then? What stories do you need to tell your children that they have never heard about their heritage? What are some important family heirloom items that need to be saved forever and passed down from generation to generation? Family is irreplaceable, so why not make a time capsule together to express that feeling.

Can you imagine the excitement when you open your Family Time Capsule years from now (whenever you pick the “Do NOT Open Until” date to put on the lid of your time capsule)? Gather all your family around again for a family reunion and open the Family Time Capsule again, and reminisce by pulling out old items that mean so much to you.

Open and read letters you wrote to each other as a family, making predictions and offering advice when you reached the year when you open the time capsule.

It is a priceless moment of bonding together. What a great legacy gift to leave for your grandchildren to find. Throw a party for the whole family for the official sealing of your Family Time Capsule. For other great ideas about how to make a family time capsule, check out this blog here.

What You Will Need:

• DIY Time Capsule from www.timecapsule.com
• Scissors
• Markers or paints to draw on or paint the outside of the DIY Family Time Capsule.
• Computer to print photos you want on the outside of the time capsule tin.
• Additional scrapbook stickers or embellishments, ribbon, or other decorative items.
• All items you want to include inside the Family Time Capsule
• Pen to write your “Message to the Future” letters.

What to Include in a DIY Family Time Capsule

• Pictures with names, dates, and a note of what is happening in the photos. Don’t forget to include a picture of your home and neighborhood, or school.
• Write down any known family medical, historical, or other important information.
• Cut out ads from the newspaper of today, and any other world events that you think are significant.
• Write down what all is trending today in the world.
• Make a list of dates of important family events, or include a daily schedule of what your life looks like from your calendar. Also write down when family members graduated high-school and/or college (and degrees), awards or honor received from school or war, and other significant events (like when someone was adopted, or who lived through major world events or wars).
• Have each family member fill out biography questions to include in the Family Time Capsule.
• Save a video of your family on You Tube and put the password to the account and video in the Time Capsule. No one is allowed to see the video again until the Family Time Capsule is opened years into the future.
• Include popular music, toys, or games in the video or in the time capsule. If you include anything media wise that you have to play back, make sure you save the method to do so (like a cd player, for example).
• Include a list of your interests, or things you like to do for fun as a family (for example, bike rides to the park).
• Include your family favorite recipes so your grandchildren can still know how to make them.
• Include family heirloom items (for example, grandpas pocket watch).
• Pressed flowers from special events
• Lock of hair to see how your hair color changes over the years.
• Picture of your current computer or cell phone.
• Ticket stubs, souvenirs, or other sentimental items from special events or trips together as a family.
• Menu from your favorite restaurant as a family.
• Write down family sayings that get said over and over in your house. Write out what the inside joke is if you have one attached to a saying.
• Write out favorite family quotes, stories, or a list of people who have influenced your family for the good.
• Save a child’s first drawing.
• List of popular actors, and your family’s favorite movies or tv shows.
• List of favorite games to play together.
• Receipts of the prices of gas, bread, milk, etc.
• Jewelry or other small items that are valuable and significant to your family.
• Most importantly, include a “Message to the Future” letter from each family member about where they see themselves and the family by the time in the future when the Family Time Capsule is opened again. Who do you think will be the most correct with their predictions in the family?
• For other great ideas, click here to check out this list of questions to ask your family members to answer and include in the time capsule.

How to Make the DIY Family Time Capsule

For specific video instructions, please go here and watch the videos in numerical order.

1. Determine how long you want to allow the time capsule to be opened to put items in it (we suggest only for one year at most). Then determine the date when you want to open the time capsule in the future again (we suggest at least 5 to 10 years, so it is long enough that you forget the items inside).
2. This is meant to be a decorative Time Capsule, so decide where you want to keep it or put it up. Do you want to hide it in a closet, or put it out on display on a fireplace mantle to drive you crazy for years, before it is opened.
3. Ask everyone in the family to bring some of their favorite items to put in the Family Time Capsule, and write a letter to themselves to include in it too.
4. Use the Online Designer to make your own scrapbook type page on the outside of the DIY Family Time Capsule. You can also just color, use markers, or paint on the outside of the time capsule. Another advantage of this DIY Time Capsule, is you can print any color photo from your phone, social media, or computer and put in on the outside of the time capsule. So, print a nice picture of your family, or anything you want to represent the fun your family has together.
5. Follow the video instructions (after purchasing a DIY Time Capsule here) of how to put that giant photo or artwork sticker on the outside of your DIY Time Capsule.
6. Fill your DIY Family Time Capsule with the items suggested above.
7. Fill in the “Do Not Open Until” date with the sticker template included.
8. Wait anxiously for however long until you can open the Family Time Capsule and reminisce about what life was like when you made it.

We hope we could help your family bond closer with this fun project together. Let us know what would you put in your Family Time Capsule? Comment below. Post pictures of your own Family Time Capsule too.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie