This year for Christmas I wanted to try something fun to make my family for Christmas. So I decided to make these wooden photo block ornaments. Each of my kids faces got their own side of the block and then one picture of the three of them together. They were such a hit that after Christmas I received so many messages from people who saw them and wanted to order them from me. I thought I would make a tutorial on how I made mine instead (just seems easier on me).
LIST OF MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED
• Wooden Blocks (how ever many you are making)
You can buy these wooden cubes at Michaels I am told or you can have them cut at home depot like I did. Just buy a 1.75 inch by 4 foot square board of wood and ask the gents at the back to cut it into 1.75x1.75 inch cubes.
• A roll of twine or ribbon (what ever color you like)
• Some acrylic paint for the edges (again what ever color you are going with)
• 1 inch Screw Eye hooks (they have gold and silver)
• Matte finish Mod Podge
• A size 16 flat paint brush for the Mod Podge
• A size 4 flat paint brush for the acrylic paint
• A good pair of craft scissors or a cutting slicer
• Photos printed into 1.75x1.75 size. I made a template for 4 1.75x1.75 squares across and 6 down on a 12x8 JPEG (I have a listing in my Etsy shop to drop your photos into the template for you with the designs I have used here and send you back a ready to print hi res JPEG. To check it out click here -----> Photo Block Ornaments drop in photos )
STEP ONE
Well this one is easy. Send the photos to print. I designed the top and bottom of my photo blocks and then used photos for each side but I had all of them printed as one 12x8 photo as you see below. Costco online one hour photo on the matte finish. Easy peasy.
Cut out all the squares on your photo with good craft scissors or a cutting slicer. I placed every square photo over each block in its final location to make sure the cut was perfect and trimmed off extra that I thought was not lining up properly. It is WAY easier to do several of these at once because of the drying time you can work on others while others dry.
STEP THREE
Once you have all the squares cut out put them a side. Using your size 4 flat paint brush paint all the edges of the each wooden block with the color you will later use on the trim.
STEP FOUR
Now use your size 16 flat brush to start Mod Podging on your photos to the wooden block. I suggest putting the glue on the block instead of the photo for two reasons. Reason one is because it for some reason sticks and holds on way better when applied this way and two cause you can move the photo into the perfect position better as it does hold it well but allows for more controlled movement. I did two sides at a time on each block and then let them dry while I did 2 more sides on another block.
STEP FIVE
Once you have placed the photos and the designs on all 6 sides Mod Podge all over the photos and the block as neatly as possible but make sure to coat them well. Again I did two sides at a time and then let that dry cause if its too stick and you touch it you will leave a forever fingerprint in the glue on your nice wooden photo ornament.
STEP SIX
Once all the sides have dried and you have Mod Podged all sides to seal the ornament like the picture below you can see a bit of the acrylic paint peeking through. I found that the look just wasn't right for what I was going for with out the painted trim. Using your size 4 paint brush start to roughly paint a trim around every photo. I did not try to make it a straight neat line but more of a rough brushed look.
STEP SEVEN
Once the paint is dry you can Mod Podge it again to seal the paint or you can leave it as is with one coat of Mod Podge and then painted trim its up to you. I Mod Podged it again. Then using a ruler diagonally across the top of the photo block from one corner to another find the middle of the wooden block and use a pen to push the tip into the middle point. Take one of your eye hook screws and screw it into the pen tip hole. Then take a piece of the twine and tie it on the eye hook and your done!
I made a ton of these this year as gifts. The ones with my three kids was for everyone in each of our families, but I also made ones just for each grandparent. One with my kids and just their grandma and on the bottom Merry Christmas Grandma. Some more examples as show in the picture below as to how you can use these photo block ornaments as keepsakes and gifts for different occasions.
This one I made for my mother. Its pictures of her parents who have long since passed away. I thought it would be nice if they could hang on her Christmas tree so their memory could be with us at Christmas even if they can't. I place one picture of each of them alone and the two pictures of them together. On the bottom I designed a beautiful quote to tie it all together.
This one I made for a friends baby. It had 2 pictures of him and then 2 sides that had designs on them. One side was his name and then other was his full name, date of birth, weight and height. Then the bottom and top just had the chevron design.
And there you have it how to diy and make personalized photo block ornaments!
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