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Make Your Kids into Interchangeable Blocks

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 I recently came up with an idea that made me really excited to create. You can make your kids into interchangeable blocks by following this fun tutorial. This would be a great gift for grandparents. Another idea is to have far away relatives send you their pictures, and you can make blocks for your kids of their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to build familiarity. These blocks create hours of play entertainment for you kids. They will love switching around heads and bodies to make everyone look silly.
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 I normally have one main picture to represent a project, but I couldn’t decide which one represented the project best. I had fun mixing the blocks all around, and I couldn’t decide. So, I just put them all up for your enjoyment. This project has been in the works for a while. I’ve been excited about it. It’s, as far as I know, a Meaningful Mama original. I had the idea to do it when I saw some Land of Nod stacking animal blocks in the girls’ room as I was putting them to bed. Here’s how we created these blocks…
Here are the blocks. I went to Lowe’s and picked out a piece of lumber at the hardware store. It was 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ x 30″ (I believe that was the length). I also found some online at a Wholesale Wooden Block site. The piece of lumber I bought I had my husband use the chop saw to cut to a perfect square. I could have done it, but my husband is way better at precision. He then sanded them down for me…what a guy.

Next was the photo shoot. My kids change outfits all the time, so I thought this would be tons of fun for them. It ended up being, I admit, a tad more of a challenge than I anticipated. I guess they like to dress up when someone isn’t telling them to do it. I said they could pick out one outfit that made them feel pretty, one outfit of their own choosing and one silly outfit. I also said there would be a mommy’s choice. We put an X on the spot they would stand, and we set up the tripod for the camera. My amazing husband then sized these photos to fit the 2 1/2″ block.  Kids don’t come proportioned in perfect thirds, so he had to play with it a bit and their feet are cut off, but that’s OK. My man is super good on the computer, and he said it takes a bit of know how in Photoshop to make it happen. See how he had the cutting lines on there and everything. 

Once your pictures are printed on normal printer paper, cut them out and make sure they are sized for the blocks. I had to do slivers of trimming on the sides.

Finally, it’s time to Mod Podge. Please see my post on tips for using Mod Podge. We did two sides on all three blocks of each body and let those dry completely before doing the other two sides. I put a plain piece of paper on the top and bottoms of the blocks. The kids were so excited to play with these, and I love all the fun combinations you can make out of all the blocks.

I need to give a shout out to my husband who was a major contributor in this project. He’s amazing!

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    • Thanks so much for all the love. I stopped by your site too. Really loved seeing all the fireplace re-dos. I love the design shows where they do the before and after shots. Great stuff.

      Reply

    • Thank you so much for following along. I’m glad you like this project, and I hope you’ll gain more from the site as you poke around. I just joined your site too. Love the footprints on the mat idea. Fabulous.

      Reply

  10. Soooo adorable! I’ve been wanting to make these for awhile but setting up the photo shoot and sizing the photos properly seems pretty daunting. Yours turned out prefectly though! Thanks so much for sharing at Etcetorize this week~

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    • Thanks for hosting. It was a tad daunting. I’m so glad I had my husband along for the ride to do a bunch of the work. The kids are loving them though, so I say they’re worth it.

      Reply

  12. this is SOOOOOO FUUUNNNN! i’ve never seen anything like this before! what a hoot! i bet they love them! thanks so much for linking up to tip-toe thru tuesday!

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    • They do love them. I hadn’t seen anything like it before either. I’m wondering if I actually came up with an original idea. That would be crazy. Thanks again for hosting.

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    • Funny! I had seen nothing like this. I actually clicked on all of your links completely curious if they go the idea from me, but they were prior to me. I love the face idea you did.

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  19. these are amazing. I want to make these for my grandson. He lives in Texas and we live in Indiana, as well as his other grandparents. I’m thinking of making blocks of the family members that live here so he can remember us as he enjoys playing with his blocks.

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    • I love that. My kids still love and play with their own. They have really stood up well. Getting a good picture to make it work will be the trickiest part, but I think you’ll make it work. What a creative way to stay connected. Looking at your blog, I love the passion you have for kids and family. Blessings on your journey!

      Reply

  20. This is so adorable! I want to make this for my nephew for christmas, he is almost 4. Your daughter looks a little older, did she enjoy the blocks? Just wondering if older kids would think this is too easy (as a puzzle)? But definitely making this for my younger daughter, thanks for sharing!

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    • My kids still enjoy it. I think it’s just fun to switch the heads and bodies around to make it fun. I don’t think it is much of a challenge, but the kids have fun messing with it. I hope you and your kids love it too!

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  22. you did it!! I´ve been wanting to do this for years for my grandchildren for reasons you mentioned. we are spread out. Wish I did it way back when but I couldn´t figure out how to do it all. Now I have almost 30 g/c, but I still want to do it.

    thanks for the tutorial.
    dul

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  23. Thinking the grandkids would have fun if we added in mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa and aunts and uncles too….just picture grandpa’s body and the 2 year olds face ?

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    • Great idea! Let me know how it goes. I love to hear about grandparents doing these kind of projects with their grandkids. It makes me happy to know there are multiple generations invested in the lives of kids. I hope you have a lot of fun with it.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  15. […] This does not have to include real pictures. It can be artwork done by your child, it can be painted, it can be magazine pictures really anything that YOU want it to be! 3 D puzzles are so much fun! But they can be expensive. But you can get these wooden blocks for pretty cheap at a craft store and customize them to make your own 3 D block puzzles!! Find instructions here. […]

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