My Creative Life: Memory Game

For Christmas we do a $25 family gift limit on my In-law side of the family. Doing that can be very difficult especially when the age differences! So I decided to make a few games using things I had around my scrapbooking room. I made another 12x12 Checker board/ tic tac toe game for my sister-in-law's family. I didn't take any pictures of it but it looks just like the other ones I have recently done (click here to see one). Since that didn't cost me anything but just over $4.00 with a coupon for magnets I decided to make something else. But what to make was beyond me. That's where ETSY.COM came into play... I did a search for $25 gift ideas for a family. So wonderful things came up but there was one that just caught my eye. It was a listing for a memory game using images printed on scrapbooking paper and then glued onto a small piece of wood. I thought I could do that BUT wouldn't it be cute with pictures of the last year! So I did a little more browsing and sure enough found something just like what was on my mind but for a whole lot more! Being that I love crafts and making things for cheaper at home I finally nailed down my idea!

First I started by enlisting my husband Bill and my dad Ron into cutting down some left over wood Bill had in the garage into 40 squares that were 2 1/4'' x 2 1/4''. Then the next day I spent a few hours in the garage sanding down the edges a bit and rounding the corners. (To bad I didn't tell Bill to take a picture of me!) The next step was the hardest, searching through pictures! I needed to find 20 pictures that I loved, if you know me well at all I LOVE to take pictures, I always have a camera with me!!! So I went through months and months of picture files on my computer looking for pictures of things we did with my sister-in-laws family and pictures that they emailed me of a visit in GA with my brother-in-law and his family. Long story short I couldn't pick just 20, instead I ended up with 23 pictures, i thought that was close enough and it was a good thing my hubby and dad cut me a few extra squares just in case they were needed, guess they know me to well! After picking the photos I printed them at home on regular computer paper and cut them down to 2''x2''. Then I picked a pattern paper that I thought would be perfect, hardest thing was cutting it down so that the squares on the paper were not cut in half which required me trimming that paper first and cutting it down to 2x2. I ended up needing to 12x12 sheets of paper but all worked out perfect. Once all the pictures and papers were cut I used Mod Podge to adhere them to the wood one side at a time. When it was all dried I put a coat of Mod Podge over the pattern paper and the pictures to protect them. I totally forgot to get a picture of all the pieces finished but I will the next time we visit them. To package it I decided to but them in a nice box. I went to Joann's Fabrics and bought an unfinished wood photo box for $7.99 and had a coupon, so paid just over $5 for it! Using a stain we had at home I stained the box and Bill sealed it to protect it. The lid held two pictures so I printed two of my niece and nephew that I thought were really cute and put them in the lid, placed the game pieces inside and voila we had another fun personal gift. Once again I forgot to take a picture of it all together cause Bill was in a hurry to wrap stuff up before all the kids woke up and wanted to get in on the fun! Christmas night my niece and my kids played the game and had a lot of fun looking at the pictures and talking about the time the were matching up. It was just what I had hoped would happen. Here are the photos that I did get of the game as I was making it.