Wood Block Photos--Another DIY Photo Craft

I love getting my craft on during the holidays.  There is something about the season that turns me into a Martha Stewart wannabe.   This year my two favorite projects have been making photo wood blocks and photo magnets.   You can find my tutorial on these photo magnets here.

Here are a few examples of the photo wood blocks I made (I need a better name for these)....

And now here is the quick tutorial.......

Supplies:

• 2x 4 Wood-- cut into 4x4 or 4x6 pieces.  I had left over wood from a recent fence replacement and I bought some at Home Depot.  I purchased a long piece for $2.50 and the Home Depot guy was nice enough to cut it up for me.  
• Paint:  I had some left over white paint in my garage.
• Stain--I picked up free sample packets of stain at my local Orchard Supply store
• Modge Podge Glue--$3.50 at Michaels
• Tacky Spray--$4.99 at Michaels
• Sandpaper to smooth out the edges of your wood
• Your favorite photos (printed on matte paper and cut to size)
• If you want to add captions or make inspirational word blocks, vellum paper works nicely
• Music--I always like to craft to some good music!

The Process:

So I took my unfinished wood that looked like this and sanded down the edges:  

And painted it to look like this:

I then stained the edges a bit to give it an aged look:

And using my Sticky Spray, glued my photo to the block:

After the photo dried (which was just a few minutes), I used the Modge Podge and painted a couple of layers on top of the photo being careful to smooth out any air bubbles:

And then after an hour or so of drying, I made this (I hope my girlfriends like it):