Father’s Day Photo Blocks

We were visiting my parents last weekend, and gave my dad his father’s day present as we won’t get another chance to see him for father’s day. I made him these photo blocks that you can rearrange to show any of 6 different pictures of our family.

Supplies:

• (6) 2″ cube plain wood blocks (found at hobby lobby)
• (6) 4×6″ pictures of your choice (plus duplicates if you want in case you make a mistake)
• mod podge + foam brush
• scissors/paper cutter and, ideally, exacto knife

To begin, cut your pictures into 2″ squares. A paper cutter with marked measurements makes this really easy, but you could use a ruler + scissors as well. Using 2″ cube blocks meant that a 4×6″ picture fit perfectly onto 6 blocks. If your pictures are similar, keep them in piles for each picture so you don’t get them mixed up!

Next, start adhering the pictures to your cubes. I spread a decent layer of mod podge onto one face of the cube with a foam brush, then set a picture square on top of that and centered it. I then pressed the block (picture side down) onto some wax paper to make sure it sealed well, and wiped off any excess mod podge with my finger or a paper towel. Make sure to keep your fingers clean though, as you don’t want mod podge smudges on the faces of the pictures. I would then set the block between two layer of wax paper with a text book on top – with the newly attached picture on top or bottom – for about 10 minutes to ensure a good seal.

Later, rinse, and repeat. Just make sure each block has one square from each picture – if you put two squares from one picture on the same block, it’ll be really hard to put that picture together! If either your wood blocks or cut pictures aren’t quite square/the right size, use an exacto knife to trim any pictures hanging off the edges of your blocks. I tried to mix up the arrangement/places of each picture on the different blocks so it would be more of a ‘puzzle’ to put together each picture, but you could make it easier by putting one picture on all 6 blocks, then rotating all blocks the same way and putting on the second picture, etc.

And if you find that you mess up one of the pictures or want to rotate it so the blocks fit together more nicely (mine weren’t all perfectly square), just get a second copy of that photo and mod podge the right photo square on top of the old one.