Chip Off The Old Block DIY Father's Day Gift

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by DecoArt, but all opinions are honest and my own. It also includes affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Looking for a DIY Father’s Day gift that is easy, inexpensive and sentimental? Make dad a set of personalized wooden photo blocks for his desk.

My son is definitely a chip off the old block.

He loves hanging out with his dad, and they share a passion for Star Wars, comic books, superheroes, Indiana Jones, Legos, Carolina Panthers football, Four Square and so many other things.

To celebrate their special bond, I decided to make a fun photo collage of some favorite father-son moments.

If you’re like me, you probably have hundreds (OK, thousands) of photos on your phone that you’ve been meaning to print or share beyond Facebook or Instagram.

This DIY Father’s Day gift is a great way to display those digital photos.

Supplies

unfinished wooden cubes (I used 1.5-inch square blocks; but you could use another size)
DecoArt Americana Decor Satin Enamels Paint in Dove Beige
DecoArt Americana Decor Metallics Paint in Pewter
DecoArt DecouPage Gloss
Photos, printed on regular printer paper
paintbrush
foam paint brush
scissors
emery board or sandpaper (optional)

Instructions

For my collage, I decided I wanted the blocks to be painted in contrasting colors.

So, I used DecoArt Americana Decor Metallics in Pewter and Satin Enamels in Dove Beige. It took two coats of each. Both paints have a durable finish, so there’s no need to add a sealer or topcoat.

I painted half the blocks Dove Beige and the other half Pewter, leaving one side of the pewter blocks unpainted.

I used PicMonkey to create 1.5-inch photos of my husband and son together. To give the photos a uniform look, I added a vintage filter in the photo editing software.

Once I printed and cut the photos to fit the blocks, I added a thin coat of DecouPage to the back of each photo and carefully applied them to the wooden blocks.

Next, I applied two coats of DecouPage to the front of each photo block, allowing to dry completely between coats.

If you like, you can use the emery board or sanding block to lightly burnish and distress the edges of the wooden photo blocks.

I only added pictures to half of the blocks because I wanted to create a checkerboard-type pattern with my photo collage.

But you can add as many photos as you like.

I also think it would be fun to make a photo puzzle out of these blocks. To do it, just print a photo sized to fit the blocks, then cut it into 12 equal squares.