2010 Family Photos!

I have been *dying* to share these with the world, but they were a surprise this year! I know, I know, "ohhh family photos- no surprise". But this year was different! It WAS!

My in laws are IMPOSSIBLE to buy for. I know them well, I know what they like so that isn't the problem. The problem is they don't NEED anything. I'm sure this is something that most people face when shopping for there parents and in laws.

So late one night while I just happened to be up nursing it struck me! Something that Im SURE that they would LOVE, and I KNOW they don't have! Well at least not a current one. A Family photo with all of there children together.

Until the next morning I realized that it was going to take a little more to pull off than I had thought. My husbands step brother lives in southern CA. And I had NO idea when he would be coming home to visit. So I approached one of my sister in laws with the Idea, we started plotting! :) We WOULD pull this off.We did, it definitely took all of us to do this!

I secured an AMAZING Photographer. We figured out the date, and we had our fingers crossed for no rain.

OH and we were also hoping that no one would BLOW the surprise! NONE of us are good at keeping secrets from Mary! There was lots of plotting and planning between all of us.

Well, We did it! And luckily there was no rain THAT day. The day before it poured non-stop.

Here it is!! 

It turned out wonderful, everyone looked great! 

Now we all just had to keep it a secret for a another whole month! CRAP! Im sure every.single.one of us at some point almost blew it.

But it was so worth it! As you can see below from Mary's reaction. 

We made her cry! We were all very proud!

Below are some of the rest of my favorites of the day!

If you are looking for a great photographer please check out Lucy Shea of Shea Shots Photography.

Mod Poge Picture Frame

This has been sitting in my drafts for almost 2 months, because I KNEW that I took the pictures, only I couldn't locate them on my camera or iPhone. I was really starting to think I had lost it, until today when I was taking pictures with the camera I keep in my diaper bag.....and low and behold there they were. ::sigh::

I actually made this picture frame for a good friend of mine. She and her husband adopted an adorable little boy last February and in November the adoption was FINALLY Final! They had a finalization party and all though gifts were not expected I just felt I wanted to make them a little something!

The "B" stands for their last name-Barber

Anyone who knows me knows that I love when gifts have meaning, and I especially love a hand made gift or something that has been handed down. I love to give hand made gifts as well. 

This gift was a fun one because it was F.E.C. ( fun, easy & cheap) And WE ALL love all three of those things! And I also love that cheap doesn't have to look or feel like it. When its made with love and thought the price is neither here nor there.

Let me walk you threw this rather easy process! I assure you many more of these will be made for my friends and loved ones!

Gather up your supplies, Frame, letters, paints, brushes, papers, and Mod Podge.

The frame is a 12x12 with a spot for a 5x7photo from Michael's, they come in many shapes and sizes. The 'B' is from there as well!

I chose paper that I had on hand in my scrap booking supplies that I knew would coordinate well with the Nursery. And pained the entire frame the blue color I mixed out of my paints I had on hand, to coordinate with the paper I chose!

While I was allowing the paint to dry I cut my paper to fit my frame. They were both 12x12 but I wanted to see the edge of the paper on the front of the frame, so I ended up taking off between and 1/8- 1/4 inch on all sides of the paper. Once The frame was dry I lined my paper up how I wanted it to lay on the frame and Flipped it face down on the table while I removed the opening to the frame and removed the plastic. ( I did not get a pic of this part) Once I removed everything I traced the opening of the frame onto the back of the paper. This allowed me to use an exacto knife to cut out the opening in the paper. I also ended up going about 1/4 inch more on this line as well so some of the blue could peak threw.

Once I finished Prepping my paper I began the mod podge process. I Spread a nice thin, even coat of it all over the front of the frame and allowed it to get a little tacky before sticking my paper on.

Once you place your paper on the wet surface make sure to smooth it out with your hands to avoid any bubbles or wrinkles that could appear

Let that set up for a bit to make sure the paper wont move during your next step

Once your sure your paper is set, you can apply your first layer of mod podge over the paper.

 

I always about 2 or 4 coats. I make sure to let each one dry in between. at least for a few hours. In my hose this usually ends up being a day! 

While you are in the process of your mod podge layers, you can paint your letter or what ever it is you are choosing to adhere to your frame. This took me many layers of paint to get the right color variation and texture I was going for, I ended up doing a lot of dry brushing and in the end it came out perfect!

Once you have done all your layers, and painted your letter you are ready to glue. I used Gorilla glue this time, But next time I don't think I will. While the gorilla glue has a great hold, it tends to expand while it drys and ooze out the edges. so if you don't have something very heavy to hold down your piece with, you will get dried glue bubbles.

And there you have it! A finished product!

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