Comments on: Homemade Gift Series, Extra Edition: Photo Cubes

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:30:28 +0000

What a great blast from the past! As lurker Carl says, the acrylic version was popular when I was little…

Another variant that my family did for me, when we moved away from relatives, was to laminate photos of family members onto small, thin wooden plaques and use them as Christmas tree ornaments. (We even used them to talk about family trees.) I’ve still got the ornaments in use, and the original color prints are still in pretty good shape, 32 years later.

(I think the plaques are pieces of luan plywood, and they are about 3″ in diameter, in diamonds and circles and hexagons.)

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:11:55 +0000

To get around your cutting down photos problem with 4×6 prints, just use photo editing software. If you scan a picture or have a digital copy you can easily crop to 4×4 without having to lose a lot of detail. Pictures over 5 megapixels in size can be scaled up without losing any quality to the untrained eye.

By: CathyG

CathyG — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:05:03 +0000

One thing I did for my kids was to find those wooden toddler puzzles with handles on the pieces. We took the pieces out and glued family photos to the inside. My girls were able to see their far-away relatives any time they wanted to.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:15:26 +0000

Anyone have ideas on how to make these lighter. I want to give some to my brother who lives in Czech Republic, for his 2-year-old daughter to get to know her cousin in a “fun” way – toys (blocks) – one featuring each of her cousins in 6 different pictures. :)

Just seems like 4×4 blocks of wood x my 5 kids (plus maybe aunt/uncles/grandparents) would be rather heavy for shipping overseas…

By: Kai

Kai — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:31:17 +0000

I’m very much against decoration presents. It’s very presumptuous to figure that you can gift something the recipient will be thrilled to hang up or put on a table.
Personally, as with Cindy P above, I don’t like anything on my tables, and this gift would just be a guilt trip as I tried to figure out how to get rid of them. Maybe grandparents can’t get enough photos, but even then, it’s locked in to a particular method of display.
Usable or consumable is my standard for gifts.

By: Vickie

Vickie — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:44:02 +0000

What a great idea, Thanks for sharing your projects with us. :)

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:30:07 +0000

We did something like this growing up but used a flat piece of wood and made a hanging picture out of it. I think my parents still have them. And very cute pictures of the kids.

By: Cindy P

Cindy P — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:42:43 +0000

Ok, hate to be negative about this, but PLEASE make sure that the recipient is someone who wants to display the photos in question and that they have room for them. If not, this gift will just be sentimental clutter. I would much rather receive the photos NOT glued to a cube so I could put them in the frames I use for family photos, changing them out whenever I get updated ones. I don’t need or want a cube of family photos sitting on my desk, coffee table, etc. Maybe I’m a scrooge or grinch or something, but I no longer want to receive any gifts that have to be dusted!

By: Millie

Millie — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:28:29 +0000

I love this idea but have a question. Did you use regular photographs printed out from say, WalMart, or computer ones? I am thinking that the ink on the computer ones might smear if they are wet?
I have loved all the projects and now that I’m on a tight budget, will make good use of these, I think I will start next year’s projects in January and work on them thru the year!
Looking forward to more homemade gifts projects that someone like me can do!

By: J.O.

J.O. — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:13:09 +0000

@ Johanna & Katie

Hilarious!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:11:15 +0000

If you cut the size down to make smaller blocks this could be a great baby present with pictures on the blocks!

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:09:58 +0000

Neat idea, thanks for sharing!

By: kristine

kristine — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:03:29 +0000

Courtney- good question!

And if you use computer printouts- the colorfastness is anywhere form 3-10 years. They fade. Ink jets fade faster, and may smear with modge podge.

What was the exact spray sealant used? Kamar Varnish? Spray polyurethane? Spray shellac? (for the shell of the lac bug…) Clear coat? I am curious as to what goes over modge podge well.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:28:21 +0000

Any idea what the long-term effects of mounting photos like this are? I usually don’t ask that kind of question, but I recently gave up on a similar project when someone told me that the acid in the wood will slowly yellow the photo. I’m wondering if the coating of mod podge between the wood and photo would prevent this. Hmm…

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:56:37 +0000

Cute kids!

By: David

David — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:28:52 +0000

I had an experience exactly the opposite you describe at Lowe’s. The associate was very helpful–he cut dow rods at my request, something their equipment is not exactly geared for. He even stopped another project he was working on to help me. I tend to think the difference in experiences like ours has a lot more to do with the employee than the chain as a whole.

Great gift idea!

By: Monica

Monica — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:49:06 +0000

I love this idea! What a thoughtful gift!

By: beth

beth — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:25:19 +0000

Hmm, I definitely like this one! The aspiring photographer daughter has some great stuff laying around and I have been at a standstill trying to come up with something we could send the grandparents, especially since I have been lazy about getting going this holiday season… again.

I could see in our case that the blocks would probably get painted before the photos, to add some color or a ‘frame’ for some of the artistic photography or to match the team colors on some of the other kid’s sports photos.

By: Leah

Leah — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:14:32 +0000

Adorable! These are super cute. I’m filing this away for the someday in the future when I have kids.

Just an fyi, you can make homemade modge podge out of Elmer’s Glue and water. it also dries clear, and I’ve never found it to be tacky (tho I used it with tissue paper on mason jars or on paper plates). I don’t know if this is cost-effective. It worked well for me because I was working at a camp where we had massive bulk containers of Elmer’s glue.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:04:45 +0000

Hah, Johanna – I imagine someone in the writer’s room had just finished a hellish home remodeling project and hadn’t had time to finish their assigned sketch as a result.