Fun DIY Photo Project To Do With Your Kids

By Monica Bielanko | December 2nd, 2011 at 12:59 pm

My bedroom.

Every day I load Henry and Violet into our double stroller and go for a walk around the village in which we live.

All told, it’s about a three mile walk to go from one end to the other and back home.

We have developed a routine.  Here comes the church, there’s the house with all the pumpkins, here’s the little white puppy we always stop to pet.

By far, our favorite part of the walk comes when we pass one of the farms in our quaint little town.  We always stop to pet the horses and offer them grass.  Both kids really dig horses and it’s nice to see sights that we’d never be able to see if we lived in the suburbs.

I decided to make a project out of framing a photo of our favorite farm.  We’re in the middle of slowly making over our bedroom and it’s been a long process.  First we tore down the wallpaper,  Then we ripped up the carpet and sanded the orginal hardwood flooring.  Our big, ol farmhouse was built in 1902 so we kind of want to decorate the room with an updated French country cottage theme.  Here’s my Pinterest board on the makeover so you get the idea.

We painted the walls a couple weeks ago and Serge bought some old barn wood he plans to use to build a headboard. Slowly but surely we’re adding things we really like to complete the look. Last week, while browsing around a local antique shop this chunky antique frame caught my eye. It’s a big, heavy duty frame that originally contained a faded sepia photo of an empty desk. Not the greatest photo. But! I figured I could photograph something from our village (founded in 1832) and, with my trusty new Canon PIXMA printer, I could tweak the photo so it looks like it came with the frame.

And that’s exactly what I did. Together we snapped a photo of the farm we love, including an old sign for our village, and then uploaded it to the computer. We had fun tweaking the colors and deciding which ones we liked best before putting it in the frame and hanging it in our room. I really love how it turned out. I am looking forward to taking more photos with Violet to print, frame and hang in her bedroom.

Take a look:

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  The Frame

  Here is the frame in all its glory.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#the-frame
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  A Closer Look

  Purchased for $10 at a local antique shop.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#a-closer-look
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  The Original Photo

  This is the original photo of the farm.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#the-original-photo
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  Color

  This is a slightly photoshopped color version of the photo I printed out on the PIXMA.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#color
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  Sepia

  This is a printed out version photoshopped, changed to sepia. This photo closely mirrors the color tint of the old photo that was in the frame when I bought it.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#sepia
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  Black & White

  This is photoshopped black and white, I also tweaked the sharpness to make it grainy and old-fashioned looking.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#black-white
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  Decisions, Decisions

  We tried out each photo in the frame. We immediately eliminated the color photo as it looked to modern in the frame. We had a tough time choosing between the grainy black & white and the sepia.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#decisions-decisions
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  Our Decision: Sepia!

  We went with sepia because it matched the inner gold rim of the frame and looks really warm.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#our-decision-sepia
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  Finished

  I hung the photo above an antique turquoise dresser I found at a local secondhand store. The gold in the photo and the frame match the gold leafing in the dresse.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#finished
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  Wide Shot

  I am loving how the room is coming together with a mix of modern and country.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#wide-shot
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  Zoom Out

  I love the idea of having a photo in our farmhouse that actually looks like it comes from the year the house was built.

  /toddler/fun-diy-photo-project-to-do-with-your-kids/#zoom-out

Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post if you want me to send a beautifully framed photo of your child right to your home. Keep it yourself or cross grandma off your list and give it her for Christmas!

Many thanks to Canon for sponsoring this post and for providing me with a brand new shiny PIXMA printer to play with.

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