If you’re an avid concert goer, chances are you like to keep concert tickets, little knickknacks like unique confetti, and if you’re one of the lucky ones, you might get to go home with a setlist, guitar pick or even a drumstick. But what do you do with them afterwards? Most likely they go into a box or drawer never to be seen again. I tried googling what people did with their stubs, but it was mainly shadow boxes filled with tickets that came up and you can’t really enjoy your collection when they are all bunched together and trapped in a box.
After trying out different ways to display my collection over the years, here are 3 simple things that I ended up doing with my concert memorabilia to turn them into home decor. Hopefully it will inspire some of you to dust yours off your collections too, and turn it into something neat to display in your home.
Important things to note while working with concert tickets :
- Tickets are usually printed on heat sensitive paper, a hot glue gun will destroy them. I learned this lesson the hard way as I didn’t even think about checking what kind of paper they were printed on.
- Use acid-free glue sticks or acid-free tape. This will help keep your tickets in good shape over time, as the acid will cause them to fade as well.
- If possible, get frames with UV protection on the glass to help preserve the tickets.
Shadow Box
Dedicate a shadow box to one of your favourite bands. It can feature anything from your favourite era of the band’s career or even a road trip you took to see them – really, anything goes! If you have a lot of bulky memorabilia, this is also a great way to display it as you have the room to play around with different layers and the possibilities are endless.
For this one I had originally bought a Studio Décor shadow box from Michaels. Unlike a traditional shadow box, it didn’t have a cushioned backing to stick pins into. It was flat and came with 3 plastic frames to create different layers to the box. It was a great idea but executed terribly, it was very flimsy and the glass was too heavy for the plastic frame. Looking back, its kind of crazy that they charge $79.99 for a frame that buckles when you try to hang it.
But from there I ended up just taking the backing and pasting down a textured paper as a background, then I followed up by layering my memorabilia between layers of acetate to get the ‘floating’ look I was aiming for. This is where I discovered that hot glue guns and concert tickets don’t mesh well, but I was able to hide the damaged parts of the tickets behind other things that were not heat sensitive. The pieces of acetate are held together with a small dot of hot glue in all 4 corners which aren’t noticeable thanks to the dark background.
I ended up taking the backing to get professionally framed in a shadow box at Michaels.
Scrapbook // Coffee Table Book
This is probably the simplest one on the list if you have a lot of bulky items. I picked up a cheap scrapbook from Walmart a few years back and began putting everything in it. From setlists, guitar picks, newspaper clippings/reviews, pictures meeting artists, VIP passes ect – literally anything and everything can go into here. I also found great use for all of the stickers I picked up over the years and decorated the inner and outer cover of the book with them.
Framed Collage
Collages are great for when you have a lot of flat items. All you have to do is find a frame you like, pop the back out, and start putting things down. You also don’t have to worry about lining everything up perfectly, which makes it a little less stressful when putting it together.
