Try to contain your shock...I've updated!

Well it's been nearly a year since I blogged. I won't bore you with excuses :) Let's get to the pictures! First, some Taggart cuteness - he got crazy dirty at the playground last week for our Small Group gathering - hilarious!!!Biggest news is we now have a 5 year old in the house! Sweet Kinsey turned 5 on March 5th. She is pretty excited and I'm hoping to take some 5 year pictures soon. We had a little birthday party for her with a few friends at a bounce place, but the highlight was the custom Little Mermaid cake decorated by Daddy. He spent all morning working on the cake with Kinsey right over his shoulder for several hours watching and narrating. The cake turned out amazing and I was so proud of him. Kinsey loved it, which was all that mattered. We took her to Monument Cafe in Georgetown for breakfast, which was also a big hit. For her birthday Douglas took Kinsey and Taggart to the zoo in Waco and they had a blast. If you haven't been there and can make it, we highly recommend! It is not only a great zoo but there are a ton of interactive things for the kids to do there. Here are a few cute pics from that day.
So I'm not normally very crafty these days but my friend Susan sent me a link to this blog a while ago and I was determined to do it before the baby is born. Take a look here for our inspiration if you are interested: http://kristendukephotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/decorating-with-portraitsmy-first-mod.html

Here's the finished product (note the lovely blank ones that are waiting for baby Chord):Close-up: I recommend doing this project with a friend - and hiring out a babysitter :) Kidding - we did it with the kids in and out a thousand times and a potty-training 2 year old.

Ok, so for some step-by-step pics (because it makes us feel like professional bloggers :).

First you get a 2ft x 4ft x 3/4" piece of MDF at Home Depot and have them cut it into 8 12x12 squares. Make sure they are even cuts (both of ours came out uneven the first time and had to be re-cut - note: the HD sign says "No Precise Cuts" but they are very nice and did them for us anyway). This costs about $11 for the sheet of MDF.
Next, find some awesome pics of your kids or your dog or flowers or whatever you want to feature, and crop them to a square (we think black and white is best for this project but we haven't tried in color *yet* and so we can't be sure). Although now I'm thinking that beautiful flowers in color would be very cool like this. Costco develops 12x12 pics for $3 in one hour and I think it's the same at Sam's. We did glossy - we don't think it matters either way.
Now you have the option of trimming them slightly on the edges so you can see the trim color, or doing them flush to the edges. I went with the slight trim and Susie went flush - you can see both results at the end (clearly mine is superior - ha). Measure each pic to the MDF squares as even when you are careful about precise cuts, there are hairline differences and if you are picky like us, you might want to trim them and label each square to make sure the pic fits exactly as you want them.

Ok, now for the paint. You want a contrasting color to the wall you'll be hanging them on. Susie has a blue wall in her kitchen and is using her cool green dining table color. I have a beige wall and am using the rusty-orange color from a nearby wall as my trim color. Paint the sides of the board and a little of the edges for any trim that might show.
Let the paint dry fully - really really dry. We did two coats. You could also do a primer coat and one coat of color (as was recommended by Home Depot and ignored by us).
Ok, once the paint is fully dry, you're ready for the Mod Podge (we got ours at WalMart). One 16oz bottle did 13 squares for us with enough left over for a few more.
Put a generous coat of Mod Podge on the square (we used foam brushes)...
Then center your picture - you can move it a little once it's down as long as you do it quickly. Using a flat edge something, start in the middle and work your way to the edges to really mash it down and get out any bubbles. This step was way easy because the photo paper is so thick it doesn't bubble up like paper or card stock can do with Mod Podge. Then spread another generous coat of Mod Podge all over the top of the photo, all the way to the edges. Susie went with straight vertical strokes with the foam brush and I did a mish mash of all directions. One coat of Mod Podge is not going to give you a thick texture, but you will have some texture once it dries so you want to decide what kind of strokes you want to use.
Make sure you scrape any drips off of the sides - they will dry clear but you'll still see them if you don't wipe them off.It will be very opaque at the beginning. Takes 15-30 minutes to dry - under a fan it will dry faster. We know this because I was freaking out and afraid that it wasn't going to dry well since it was my first time Mod Podg'ing on photo paper and I got antsy so I stuck it under a ceiling fan :)
Finally it dried - whew! You can't see the texture in the pic, but it looks really cool. You can see the very slight border visible around the photo.
We set all of our squares on top of books to allow the paint and Mod Podge to dry.
Here's a great before and after visual of a Lucy pic and an Owen pic. You can tell here that there is no trim visible on Susie's. Here are my finished 4 pics.
Once we got the hang of it, it went pretty fast. Now we want to do some in every room!!!! If you decide to take this on, definitely let us know!