Thursday 17 March 2011

Teen Decor {Photo Cube Tutorial}

My eldest son Jack turned 16 yesterday & I wanted to make him a little keepsake.  I knew he wouldn't appreciate a mini-album as that would be too "girly" for him, so when I saw this at my local photography store I knew it had great potential for transformatiion.

For my South African readers, these are available at Photo Freedom for R37, are made of perspex, about 10 x 10cm.

Looks like they are imported from the Netherlands. 
I haven't had a lot of time to create this week & have been particularly tired.  We had a flood in our house on Sunday, caused by a blocked drain & that prompted a week of "getting things fixed" involving visits from plumbers, electricians, etc.  So I WANTED SOMETHING QUICK & EASY TO MAKE!!

I printed 4 photos per page - the cube needed only 6 but I didn't want to waste photo paper so printed 8 photos to fill up the pages & kept 2 aside to scrap with, then I cut the photos down using my Fiskars trimmer.
Here you can see how the cube is made up of 2 separate perspex sections that fit together.  Once I had cut my photos I stuck double-sided tape all around the edges of each square - on the photo cube box - then carefully positioned my 6 selected photos - one on each facet of the cube.

I used 3 photos of Jack (one with each of his siblings) plus one of himself alone - and 2 sentiments that I downloaded off the internet.
His room is black, grey, white & red so I stuck to the colour scheme. 

Here are the tools I used:-  My paper trimmer, metal ruler & craft knife (for trimming off any excess), scissors, double-sided tape, "Spike" {my best scrapping mate - he helps me lift the back off my double-sided tape as no fancy tape-runners here :) and a lint-free cloth - used for wiping the photo & inside of the prespex before putting the cube together to remove fragments of dust, etc.
And then I had fun placing Jack's cube in various different locations within his bedroom to see how it would look in it's new home!

This project takes about half-an-hour {except if you have my luck & your printer breaks down midway & takes you an hour to fix!}.  Fortunately I am quite good at fixing my printer but it still takes time!!
Jack really liked his cube & made more of a fuss of it than I expected so that was cool :)

Jack is very particular for a young man & likes his bedroom to be simple & sophisticated so when we moved in to our new home 10 months ago we sprayed his red drawers black & I painted his new bed mid-grey.
He is an ardent Manchester United supporter so all the red from the posters & paraphernalia needs to be toned down with a more neutral scheme of white, grey & black.

I am now busy thinking of all the people I can make these for for gifts, soooooooooo much easier than mini-albums :)

6 comments:

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

This is such a cool idea for a teenager, you did a fabulous job mom!

re- my home
Nope, I do not have shabby chic home (i wish), my home decor is rather south western, you know, the kokopali stuff, mexican colorful banner, pottery all over the place...

Stefanie said...

Great job, but can I please see a photo of his Man U room?
As you know my CJ is an ardent Chelsea supporter and there is far less Chelsea stuff available.
Thanks for all the effort you went to for this detailed post, was wonderful to read and quite inspiring. In my mojo-less state that is saying something.
PS I sorted out the following thingie.

Sophia said...

Love this idea, and would make great gifts.

Heather Jacob said...

fabulous idea my grand-son and grand-daughter would both adore this .... thanks so much for sharing ..... beautiful work as always ...take care ... hugz x

Lynette Jacobs said...

I love this...stunning idea for a male!

Marilyn said...

I love It!! Beautiful project!! Love one of the quotes...If People are...etc.., I'll borrow!!
Take Care my friend!!
HUGS!!