Photo Blocks

So for Scott's birthday this year

I tried to think of something

that was creative & fun

I remembered him saying that

he didn't have any updated pictures

of our family on his desk

And since we had just

did our awesome sessions

with Carrie House

my wheels immediately started turning

So I looked at what we had

around the house

and came up with the idea

for some photo blocks

I cut my 4 x4 into blocks

using Scott's table saw

and I may have scared years off of both our lives

When cutting my last block my 4x4 was down to about 7 inches long

and I may have been being a scaredy pants

and not holding onto it tightly enough

only because my fingers were fricking close to the actual blade!

Well I still have all my fingers

but a portion of the 4x4 flew off the table saw

and hit the wall with some pretty good force

which I'm extremely thankful it hit the wall

and not me

This brought Scott running out to the garage

I think he was expecting blood

He offered to do the last cut for me

which I gladly accepted

So after my near death experience

I gathered my blocks & the rest of my supplies

I painted all the blocks white

and then attempted the mod podge transfer

I have been seeing all over pinterest

I printed my photos off on a laser printer

brushed a layer of mod podge on my block

and placed the photo on there

ink side down

After they had dried I sprayed them lightly with water

and gently (gently is key here) started to rub the paper off

with my fingers

I found that if I let them dry for just a couple of hours

this worked best

if I let them go for longer

it was harder to get the paper off

Here is what the pictures looked like

This is a good example where I wasn't so gentle

but I liked the worn look so it was okay

I then added another layer of mod podge

on top to protect the pictures

and it made it shiny :)

I also added some letters to the blocks

so they spell out a few different letters

and I figured Scott's students would get a kick

out of playing with them

I roughed up the edges & added

some paint to give them a antiquey look

...and then of course forgot to take more pictures :)

I really like how these turned out

and how simple (and cheap!) this was

I'm already thinking of more

mod podge transfer ideas to try out :)