Monday, April 25, 2011

Mother's Day Photo Frames

If you are my Mother or my Mother-in-law, click away now.... or at least act surprised.  :)

Now that Easter has come and gone, and Mother's day is only 2 weeks away, I'd thought I'd show you guys what I came up with for my Moms (and myself) for Mother's Day this year.  If your curious, THIS is what I made last year. 

The only problem is I'm not sure what to call them.  They are so much more then just a photo frame....


They are basically blocks of wood, decorated to look adorable, with little clips so that you have a place to display those "photos of the moment" instead of just sticking them to your fridge.  I just threw a photo in for demonstration purposes, but I plan on printing one of our Hawaii family pictures as part of the gift.  Both 4x6 and 5x7 photos work great.

And yes, I made four of them.


They are all a bit different but I love them all.  I had a hard time deciding which one I was keeping for myself! 

Want to make your own?  Here is the method to my madness.


You start out with a block of wood.  Mine are 9.5" squares and I cut them from a board from Lowes.  You also need a 4" piece of dowel.  Then just drill a hole the size of your dowel in the back of your block so that you have a way of making it stand. (image A)

Then paint your pieces.  I used little clothes pins for my clips, so I took those apart and painted those too. (image B and C)  Then like I do with all my paint finishes, I sanded it down a bit (image D) and put a coat of wood stain over the whole thing. (image E)

Now the fun part.  Find a cute piece of scrapbook paper (mine where those great two sided kind) and cut it a bit smaller then your wood.  Then cut about 1/3 of that off so you can flip it around and have both patterns visible.  Modge podge that in place. (image F)

Then put your clothes pins back together.  I used hot glue when reassembling them so that they would stay together better.  I also used a scrap of paper on the pin.  Then glue those to your boards.  Use a photo to determine the placement.  (image G) 

Then I put a strip of ribbon over the seem where the two papers meet.  I just hot glued it down and to the back.  I didn't worry about the backside too much.  (image H and I)  Then finish it off with a bow and a quote.  I cut my quote out of black vinyl with my silhouette, but you could get creative here.



And that's it! Clip on a cute picture and you have a gift that anyone would love!


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