Photo (or Notes) Block

I'm so excited to share this chunk of wood with you all today...LOL! I wanted to make something crafty yet universal for my daughter's Christmas gift for her 1st grade teacher.  Here's what I did.  read below for a supply list and to see how I did it.

I don't know why you can see the mod podge streaks in the photo because it wasn't visible in person.  Must have been something with the lighting and flash because the streaks are only showing where the flash hit. I'd take another photo but she gave it to her teacher yesterday. 

Supplies:

• Wooden block - you can get one at a craft store or have a lumber yard cut them for you.
• Spray paint
• 8x8 piece of paper
• mod podge
• foam paint brush
• bullnose clip
• fibers, ribbon, tulle (optional)
• embellishments
• Photo - I sed a 4x6

How I did it:
Rheagan's teacher is a "fancy" lady so I went through my stash and found this beautiful paper (Crate Paper - Restoration Collection "Slipcover") and the project came together so lovely I think. 

• I had my hubby cut a 2x10 piece of wood (white pine) down to 8.5" square.  I got a ton of blocks out of it so you just might see some more being featured in the future.
• I spray painted them different colors based on the look I was going for.  This one happens to be black.  You could also sand the edges to give it a more weathered look but I wanted this one to look more polished. 
• I then cut my paper to a 8x8 and stitched around the sides to give it a bit of flair.  I inked the edges blue and then modge podged it on along with the border at the bottom. 
• While that was drying I fussy cut some flowers out of the remaining paper and modge podged those and set them aside. 
• Once the block was dry I added a bullnose clip to the front. I decorated it with a strip of the backside of the paper, a smallblue-green flower and fibers.
• I picked some matching ribbon, found some bling, tulle and fibers and went to work decorating the rest. 
• One last thing I did was I added a little tag on the back with my daughter's name, grade, school and date so that her teacher would always know who it came from. I'm sure she'll swap the picture out at some point and she's taught hundreds of kids in her 30 years of teaching so a little hidden reminder doesn't hurt in this case.

And there you have it.  I added a picture of my daughter with a note of appreciation written on the back of the photo.  The alternative to using it as a photo block would be to use it to hold some pretty stationary.  What a great idea; I think I might make some custom stationary for the next person I make a block for.