Today I'm sharing my last post in collaboration with Canon USA and their photo printers. I have loved working with them. The printers are great and these varied projects have been so fun to dream up and execute.
Since the beginning, I planned to make Ellerie a photo memory game with pictures of our family members. I scheduled it to be the last project, knowing that she'd be "older" then and hopefully more interested. It was sort of wishful thinking though. She's only 21 months so I had no idea if she'd "get it."
Surprisingly (and so happily!) she LOVED it. She doesn't get the actual memory concept of flipping over two at a time to match yet, but she spent 20 minutes (about 48 hours in Toddler Standard Time) turning over the pieces, stacking them and pointing out who is who. It was so awesome for me to see (making stuff is fun…making stuff that people enjoy and use is the dream) and I expect we'll enjoy this game for awhile.
Here's how I made it…
I gathered 10 photos. (me, Paul, both sets of grandparents, Aunt Kristen, Uncle Rob, Teddy and Coco, the beloved cat that lives with Paul's family.) I choose photos that had Ellerie in them. She's just a few days old in one and about 20 months in one.
I cropped them into 3×3 squares using PSE and printed six at a time on 8.5×11 sheets of photo paper on my Canon PIXMA MG7520. Because it was going to be a memory game, I printed two of each photo so there were 20 photos in all.
Using my paper cutter, I cut them down to size.
I really wanted each square to have some heft to it so I decided to mount them on balsa wood. I found some that was already cut into 3 inch strips (at Jo-ann's) and then used a razor blade to score each side. After a few swipes down each side, the balsa wood broke cleanly into 3×3 squares.
I used PVA glue (book binding glue that doesn't warp) to mount the photos on the wood. On the backside, I glued polka dot scrapbook paper (that I cut down to 3×3 from 12×12 sheets).
I stacked all the pieces in between books and let them dry for a few hours.
And then we played! I set things up and called Ellerie over to take photos, thinking I would have to "art direct" my tiny hand-model a bit. But she was way into it. No direction from mama needed.
I'm thrilled with how this turned out. The photos are colorful and fun. The balsa wood is sturdy. And the 3×3 size seems just perfect for her little hands.
This post was brought to you by Canon USA. As always, project idea, words, opinions and photos are my own. Special thanks to my girl for the inspiration.
To see more projects from this collaboration :
enJOY it 
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