Monday, November 21, 2011

Christmas Photo Cubes...


I was inspired a few weeks ago by these cute paper photo cubes from Style Burb that I saw on Pinterest, so I pinned the photo and wrote it on my "to do" list!

I'm visiting family this week, but last week I had some time so I got busy. Instead of making them out of a paper template as suggested on Style Burb, I chose to buy 1 1/2" wooden blocks and Mod Podge the photos on the cubes along with some festive scrapbook papers.


Here's what you'll need for the project:

1.5" Wooden blocks (they are actually slightly smaller in size than advertised)
Mod Podge and a paint brush
Scrapbook papers
Cropped (square) photos of family members
Optional: Brown stamp pad for distressing block
Optional: 1 3/16" square paper punch

One and a half inch wooden blocks can be purchased at Hobby Lobby in a package of six for $2.99. They can also be purchased individually at Michael's for $.99 each. I started by distressing the outside edge of my wooden blocks by running the edges along a brown stamp pad...


Then I used a square hole punch to punch out some squares of scrapbook paper...


I went to my computer and found pictures of each member of our family. I cropped the pictures to make square close-ups. I inserted those photos into a Word document, sized them, printed them off and used my hole punch to make nice little square photos. I printed two pictures of each individual per wooden block. Examples of some of those photos are below...


Then I started the job of Mod Podging the photos and scrapbook papers onto each cube. I thought this was going to be very tedius, but it went surprisingly fast. I Mod Podged a couple sides at a time on each block and allowed a little drying time in between applications. Soon I had something like this...




I'm going to use these for holiday decorations and games at Christmastime, but I also think blocks like these would be a fun gift for a toddler!  I made 25 of these little cubes. That's how many members are in our immediate family. What's more they are all coming for Christmas {gulp}. That's right, all of our kids and grandkids will be home for the holidays. {I've begun taking a multi-vitamin with extra Iron in preparation.} I'm so excited!


The above photo made me hum the tune, "O Tannenbaum," which is about the only thing I remember from my three years of German in high school. ;o)