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This is a last-minute extra addition to the homemade gift series. Sarah and I have gone back and forth for a long while about whether to post this one in the series, but when we showed the items to several people as we were making them, the comments from them were almost universal: 鈥淵ou need to show this to your readers, Trent!鈥�

Why didn鈥檛 I want to do a post about it? More than the other gifts in the series, Sarah and I both feel that these gifts will be cherished by the recipients. So, yesterday, I contacted the recipients and asked them to not read The Simple Dollar for a few days 鈥� I know the recipients, and I鈥檓 quite sure they won鈥檛 if I ask them not to.

So, what did we make?

We made photo cubes (or, in our case, not quite cubes 鈥� I鈥檒l explain below) for home decoration use or paperweight use! The cubes are made out of cedar, though most woods would also work easily for them.

We got the idea from at the wonderful blog and more or less followed the procedure outlined there. I鈥檒l reiterate it here, with some details on our own experiences.

I should note that in the below procedure, I鈥檓 often stating 鈥渨e鈥� for tasks both Sarah and I did individually. She put forth quite a lot of effort during the making of these cubes; in fact, I鈥檇 easily say she handled most of the work here, particularly in terms of putting more coats of Mod Podge on the cubes throughout the day.

What You Need
The materials you need are largely straightforward.

A cube-shaped block of wood 鈥� or two, or three
Sandpaper
Six photographs
Mod Podge
A sponge paint brush
A spray sealant for the finish (to prevent tackiness from the Mod Podge)

On acquiring the wood cubes We went to Home Depot, selected a cedar 4鈥� by 4鈥�, and asked them to cut the board every four inches, making (theoretically) 4鈥� x 4鈥� x 4鈥� cubes. I should note here that we tried both Home Depot and Lowe鈥檚 for this purpose 鈥� the people at Lowe鈥檚 wouldn鈥檛 cut the board to our specifications and basically acted as though we were a bother, while the staff at Home Depot were very helpful.

The problem with this cut is that the cubes didn鈥檛 turn out to be perfectly 4鈥� x 4鈥� x 4鈥�. After cutting, the cedar had dried and shrunk a small amount, so we ended up with blocks that measured about 3.5鈥� x 3.5鈥� x 4鈥�.

We had two choices at this point: we could either shave 1/2鈥� off of one end of each cube or we could simply go with the slightly rectangular blocks. Our decision was made after mocking up a few of them 鈥� we decided to go with the oblong ones. We found that the slightly askew blocks made for much more interesting stacking possibilities if done in multiples.

If you want cubes, ask for a tape measure to measure the 4鈥� x 4鈥� before they cut it for you. Make sure that it actually measures 4鈥� by 4鈥�.

On acquiring the Mod Podge, sponge brush, and spray sealant I went to a local Hobby Lobby intending to just pick up the Mod Podge and the brush, but the person there seemed fascinated with the project. She warned me that the Mod Podge might wind up being slightly tacky when we were finished, and she suggested a clear spray-on finishing spray that would eliminate the tackiness.

Both Hobby Lobby and Michael鈥檚 were very helpful during our various homemade gift projects. I never went away from either store with disappointment with their prices, product selection, or customer service.

Choosing Photographs
Choosing the photographs made for an interesting experience, too.

We decided to make photo cubes themed around our children. In the example above, for instance, we鈥檝e chosen pictures for a cube full of .

Now, it鈥檚 easy to choose 4鈥� x 6鈥� snapshots of your target that are wonderful pictures on their own, but you quickly begin to realize that when you鈥檙e cropping them down to fit on the face of a cube, you鈥檙e shaving off a lot of the context of the picture. This can quickly make wonderful shots unusable or greatly reduce the likeability of the shot.

In other words, when you鈥檙e choosing snapshots for such a cube, choose ones that have a lot of potential space to crop away. If a photo is filled with your target, it鈥檚 not going to work for a cube face unless you shrink it down to the cube鈥檚 size.

If you do as we did, which involved selecting photographs out of a big box of prints, this is a really important factor to think about, and considering it up front will save you some effort in finding great pictures that work on cube faces.

Making the Cubes

As is often the case with projects like this, we put the cubes together during a family arts and crafts session, in which the children were making their own projects at the same time (hence the colorful doodles next to the ).

We used scissors to trim the photos down to an appropriate size for each cube face. This was more of a process of repeated trimming and comparing to the various faces of the cube until it looked appropriate.

At the same time, the cube faces were a bit rough, so we sanded them down a bit. The faces themselves do not need to be perfectly smooth as they will be covered with photos, but the edges should be smoothed down to a nice rounded edge, depending on how exactly you want your cube to look.

The photographs were attached to the cubes that was allowed to dry. This worked very well for directly attaching the photos.

Typically, we attached three photos, allowed them to dry, then attached the other three photos. This enabled us to not have to sit a drying photo on the bottom side of the cube, which might have caused uneven drying or warping (better safe than sorry).

After the photos were attached, we gave three faces of the cube a coating of Mod Podge. When you first put the Mod Podge on, it鈥檒l look like you just coated the face with something white and .

Just wait. It will dry clear and look glossy.

We applied three coats to each face of the cube. We would coat three faces, let it dry, rotate the block, then coat three more faces and allow those faces to dry. Repeat that procedure three times and you have a finished cube.

Usually, we had at the same time, so we would put another coat on several cubes all at once and let them dry all at once. Honestly, if you鈥檙e going through the effort of making one cube, the additional effort to make more is much less 鈥� the leap from one to two cubes is much less than the effort for just one cube.

After we had three coats on it, we sprayed the cubes with a clear finishing spray so that they wouldn鈥檛 be sticky over long periods. If the cubes are stacked, for example, we don鈥檛 want them to become stuck together in a tower.

If you鈥檙e thinking of doing this yourself, remember you can make cubes of any theme you鈥檇 like. Friends have suggested cubes made up of your favorite sports team (perhaps using cropped baseball cards), cubes of the home where you and the person you鈥檙e giving the cube to grew up or spent time together when you were younger, cubes depicting a trip taken together, or so on.

If you know of a person鈥檚 passion or something they care about deeply and that can be represented visually, you probably have what you need to make a photo cube for them that will touch their heart.

In a few days, I鈥檒l have a final 鈥渉omemade gift鈥� post that shows what we did to package many of the gifts.

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