photo blocks

My fun crafty project this Christmas was to make photo blocks. It originally started when I saw a shutterfly catalog back in November that advertised their photo blocks. They were very cute, but were also $25 a pop. There was no way I was paying that much (because of course I wanted more than 1 block), so I set out to figure out how to make these for less.

I found some wooden blocks (just normal kids ABC building blocks) that were a good size to work with - 1.75" square (Entire set of 50 blocks bought on ebay for less than 1 shutterfly block. Score!)

I painted the top and bottom of each block with black paint. (random note about these: I left them on the counter for a day to dry thoroughly. Even though I was the one who painted these and I knew exactly what they were, every single time I saw them out of the corner of my eye, they looked like ice cream sandwiches or some other yummy treat. Squint your eyes, you'll see what I mean.)

While the paint was drying, I went through our old photos. My plan was to make one photo block for each year. I started with 2005 when Samuel was born, and made a block for each year all the way through 2013. I resized the photos on the computer to make them the perfect fit for the blocks. I also made all of the photos b/w for a consistent look. Each block holds 4 photos for the year, and I added the date to one of the photos. I tried to pick normal everyday life scenes, not necessarily school pictures or posed shots. 

I used mod podge to attach the photos to the blocks. Then, when they were dry, I sprayed them with a clear sealer to prevent discoloration and to keep them intact longer.

I love how these turned out. I took all 9 of them and put them in a glass bowl, which I am going to leave as a centerpiece/conversation piece on our dining room table. The kids love the blocks, too. They like to look back at when they were really little and see how much they have grown. 

As a variation to the photo blocks that will stay out year-round, I also made a set of Christmas ornament blocks. For most of these (except ironically the one shown below), I put only one picture for each year, so each block covers 4 years of christmas photos. I made 3 copies of each of these ornaments - one to display on our tree, and a copy each to put away for Samuel and Becca to have when they are grown up and have their own trees. They will each end up with about 4-5 ornaments total, since each block spans 4 years (assuming, of course, they still allow me to take funny pictures of them when they are older.) The ornament blocks were made the same way as the ones above, just with the addition of an eye hook and a ribbon for hanging. 

I made a total of 19 blocks this year (the 9 b/w ones above, 2 ornaments for grandparent gifts, and 8 christmas ornaments for us/the kids) all for about $25 (blocks on ebay, black paint, eye hooks, ribbon). I still have about 30 blocks left over as well. Moral of the story: much much cheaper than if I had bought these through shutterfly.

I had a lot of fun making these. So much in fact, that I am going to offer them as a new product on my etsy shop. If you know anyone who wants a photo block like these, feel free to send them my way!

Winter Fun

Here are some pictures of things we have been up to lately:

Making holiday treats (with lots and lots of sprinkles). Each Christmas Eve we bake cookies and bring them to our local fire station. The firefighters always let the kids check out the fire engines, which they love:

Having a surprise visit from Santa. Samuel asked to try on Santa's hat and Santa replied "Well, only if I can wear your hat!" 

We went to see The Nutcracker (disclaimer: it was the Max and Ruby version of The Nutcracker, designed for young kids, so it wasn't the real thing, but more of an introduction to what The Nutcracker is like.) You can only barely make it out in the picture below, but Becca insisted on packing a gift bag full of ribbon and wrapping paper scraps and bringing them with us to give to "a stranger at the nutcracker", as she said. (should I be concerned that she wants to give presents to strangers?) We gave it to one of the ushers who looked like a grandmother, and she was very nice about it. The performance was at a beautiful restored theater called The Embassy Theatre. You can kind of see some of it in the picture below (if you look past the part where it looks like Erin's head is on fire. Ushers are apparently good at accepting gift bags of ribbon, but not so good at taking pictures.)

Becca has been asking to try ice skating, so we went one afternoon with Aunt Erin and Uncle Mark to a local rink that has ice skating and also happens to have bounce houses. Both kids overwhelmingly preferred the bounce houses to the ice skating, and as you can see in the picture below, Samuel is not eager to get back on the ice any time soon. His feet kept hurting because instead of gliding them across the ice, he kept picking them up and taking tiny steps. Becca was a wild woman on the ice and it took me AND Erin to hold her up so that none of us fell. After about 2 times around the rink, she told us "I'm ready to go in the middle now. On my own." Um, I don't think so. She was so excited and wiggly, she could barely stand still on the ice without falling one way or the other. 

Happy New Year everyone! I will try to be better about posting on our blog in 2014! 

Gnome Hunt and Fairy Houses

I took the kids to an event at a local farm back in September. We went on a walk in the woods to find hidden gnomes, and then they built fairy houses using materials they found in the woods.

Finding a gnome.

A gnome!

Becca's fairy house.

Samuel's fairy house (for very large fairies apparently.)

Becca and her finished fairy house

Samuel's finished fairy house

Both kids really liked walking around in the woods (there are no woods near our house. Heck, we only have 1 tree in our yard, which is great for fall raking time, but not so much fun for exploring). Becca is a nature collector and brought home a big bag of treasures - nuts, seeds, sticks, etc... Samuel didn't bring anything home, but he had a lot of fun building his fairy house (mansion?) At one point, the instructor actually restricted Samuel from bringing back any sticks that were larger than he (Samuel) was. That's how gung-ho he was about building this. I don't think he was at all interested in a fairy possibly living there, but he just wanted to build, build, build.

First Day of School

Was the 1st day of school back in August? Yes. Am I super behind on updating our blog? Yes.

Here are the kids ready for their first day of school:

Live from Fort Wayne, It's Sunday Night...

Our blog has been sadly neglected for the past few months since I went back to work the beginning of August. I have tons of things I want to post here, and will try to get to those soon. In the meantime, here are a few videos of Becca attempting to tell a joke tonight. (It sort of looks like she is wearing a purple mink stole in these videos, but it's actually just her bathrobe.) Oh, and in case you thought 4-year-olds were ready for stand-up comedy, spoiler alert: they aren't. But she is super cute, so that counts for something.

Princess Tea Party

Becca went to a Princess Tea Party this week. It was a program through our Parks and Rec Dept. There were about 10 little girls there all dressed up in princess dresses. They got to make hats, play games, decorate cookies, and play with an (empty) tea set. She had a lot of fun! I think her favorite parts were eating the cookie and dancing on the stage in her princess dress.

Elephant and Piggie

Both Samuel and Becca LOVE the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. This week Elephant and Piggie made a guest appearance at our library so we went to see them. The kids got to have their pictures taken with Elephant and Piggie, hear some Elephant and Piggie stories, and make some puppets. Here are some pictures: