The holiday season is officially over now! It’s been two weeks of non-stop eating and family gatherings and, although I’m a bit sad it’s over, I’m happy to go back to normal. The season started with Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day lunch, which we celebrated with Andoni’s side of the family. You already saw what we made for dessert, but other than that his aunt and mom prepared all the food, which consisted mostly of appetizers and was delicious.
The day after Christmas I had to go to the University for a morning meeting, but after that we drove to Madrid for a quick visit. We arrived there just in time for lunch, then checked out the outlets nearby in the afternoon. The next day, the 27th, was one of my aunt’s 50th birthday so we had a celebratory family lunch and then drove back home. So it was definitely a short stay in Madrid! We hope to visit soon(ish) again though and hopefully we’ll be able to do more stuff while there. Oh but we brought something home with us on this visit…
I spotted this chair at my aunt’s place and loved it. When I asked here where she got it she said we could take it home with us, because she no longer had a place for it in her house and didn’t know what to do with it. Turns out my uncle and her bought it at Ikea a long time ago. I did a little online digging and it’s the Hova chair from 1993. It’s too bad Ikea no longer sells those because I think they’re really cute.
Saturday the 29th we had a Secret Santa gift exchange and dinner with our friends at our place. It’s the second year we’ve done the gift exchange and this year we drew the names very early so that people could DIY gifts if they wanted to, instead of buying them. I was very excited to try out something I had seen on Pinterest so I DIYed the gift I gave: photos on wood blocks. It was very easy to do, although very time consuming (the step by step process is at the end of this post). The exchange was really fun and there were some awesome presents! For example my friend Maite, the one who made my wedding dressed, gave a beautiful handmade skirt. And what I got was great, too: a Recesky DIY Twin Lens Reflex Camera Kit. It’s a camera that you have to build yourself and then works with standard 35mm film. It takes Instagram-style pics, although the actual camera is cool looking and would look great simply sitting on a shelf even if you never used it. I had no idea those existed until now, but I love it, I thought it was a very original gift. Obviously my friends know me well. So, the gift exchange + dinner = a total success in my book.
Of course, the 31st we celebrated New Year’s Eve at my parents’ with a delicious dinner. My mom made several appetizers and a main dish, and Andoni and I brought dessert: coffee mousse with salted caramel in small glasses. I have to blog the recipe because they were one of the best desserts I’ve had lately. January 1st we always gather at my aunt and uncle’s house and we all have a huge lunch there (now you’re probably starting to realize why I’m glad the holidays are over… too much food!). Then on January 6th we gather there for lunch again on Kings’ Day/Three Wise Men and we have a family gift exchange there as well. I received the Socker mini greenhouse from Ikea as a gift (I dropped not-so-subtle hints about my Pinterest wish list… ha).
And now the season’s over, and we’re back to normal. Like I promised, here’s how I did the photo on wood block craft:
Transferring Photos to Wood Blocks
I was inspired by the numerous pins and followed this tutorial more or less to a T.Materials: wood blocks, photos printed on normal paper with a laser printer, matte gel medium, modge podge, a brush.
- Cut wood in desired size/pieces.
- Print the photo(s) you’ll be using on normal paper, using a laser printer. This is important. Do not use photographic paper or an InkJet printer. If you want to transfer the photo as you see it on the computer, take into account that you should print a mirror like image, so that when you transfer it onto the wood it mirrors again and you end up with the original photo. If you print it as is you’ll transfer a mirror like image.
- If you wish, cut out the silhouettes of people in the photo, or leave them as is. I did a total of ten or so pics (it was sort of like a mini gallery) and the ones that were portraits, I cut out the background of the pic and just transferred the silhouettes.
- Use a brush to apply a layer of gel medium on top of the photo, on the side of the photo. Turn the photo around and stick it onto the wood, face-down. Let it dry overnight.
- Fill a bowl with water and, with the help of a clean cloth, wet the photo. You have to peel out all the paper but leaving the ink, slowly, rubbing the cloth or your fingers on the photo. Be especially careful around the edges or you might peel the ink as well.
- You’ll have to take your time with step five. I found it easier to do it in stages/layers. So I peeled most of the paper, dried the block with the hair dryer, saw which places needed more peeling, and continued. Drying in between peeling helps you see where you need to keep rubbing because when the paper is wet you don’t notice that there’s still paper that needs to be peeled.
- When you’re satisfied with the results, modge podge on top of the photo to protect the pic. Don’t worry if you think there’s still a very thin layer of paper that you can’t get rid, because you won’t be able to notice it once you modge podge on top. I was a bit preoccupied because although the photo looked great when it was wet, as soon as it dried you could tell there was a veeery thin layer of paper. When you apply the modge podge, though, everything looks perfect.
P.S.: I’m having trouble with categories & the new design (that’s why this post is filed under “in the kitchen” but I hope to be able to fix it quickly. In the meantime, take a look around because I’ve redesigned most pages in the navigation menu, and let me know if anything doesn’t work! Thanks for your patience as I continue to tweak the blog around. Update: looks like the categories are working fine now, but please, do let me know if you see anything that doesn’t look right.
Oh your holiday festivities sound great, good food, family, friends and lots of fun. I am curious of your DIY camera, could you show us a photo of it and maybe some pics made with it?
We also saw lots of friends and family during the weekend, I got tired of cooking, but enjoyed it just as much, a friend was visiting Holland so we played tourist and we went to Gouda, Utrecht, Leiden, Amsterdam and Haarlem. We baked our own “Rosca de Reyes” and I succeeded at making macarons (yay).
For the gift exchange we `played this game where everyone had to bring a “neutral” gift (tea, coffee, a book, a mug, stuff that anybody could enjoy) and we then randomly assigned numbers to each person. We started in chronological order, each person in their turn can either choose a gift from the stack or “steal” someone else’s gift. The person whose gift got stolen can then either pick a gift or steal one. The only caveat is any gift can only be stolen 3 times, if you are the 3rd one to steal it, you get to keep it. It was fun and it got the festive mood going, since not everyone knew each other at our dinner party (we were a mixed bag with my brother in law, his girl, and some ex colleagues from work with their partners).
We also spent time with our neighbours and their kids, and it all ended with a fresh new start. 2013 is feeling like a good year. I wish you all the best.
And I love your photos on wood blocks.
I haven’t had time to build the camera yet, that’s why there’s no picture of it – I’d just be able to show you the box. I plan on doing it this weekend though.
Your holiday sounds like so much fun! I’ve heard of “neutral” gift exchanges but I’ve never participated in one before, it’s definitely a great idea!
Cool technique! Thanks for the tutorial.
Glad you like it!
I’m glad the holidays are over! It was great while it lasted – we ate our leftovers for a couple of days. We enjoyed our gifts, we prayed for New Years and now we’re kicking back into full gear! It’s business time =)
Have a wonderful 2013!
You too Carrie!
You really have been busy.
Love the wood transfer. I would not know where to get at a laser printer though… I saw someone using this or a similar technique putting a night time city image on a bench. It looked terrific too.
I am curious as well about the camera. Looking forward to seeing that
Glad you had such a wonderful Christmas/New Years/3 Kings
My dad printed the photos for me at his office, but I *think* if you go to a professional printer they’ll have laser printers and since they’re normal sized pics it wouldn’t be expensive at all.
Great tutorial (and that is the cutest puppy)!
PS. I love the new design. You and Kristen are really inspiring me to get busy with LHBH’s new look!
It was my friend’s puppy! I used pictures of him, his pup, several group shots, etc to make the “gallery”.
I’ve always wondered if that photo transfer actually worked and I’m glad to see that it does! Perhaps I’ll give it a go soon!
It does! The results aren’t perfect though, as you can see. But I guess that’s sort of the charm
Wow! You’ve been busy!! That camera sounds really interesting- I second (third?) wanting to see a photo of it once you have it built.
The photo transfer looks great! Ive wondered if that actually works so it’s good to see that it does! I tried it with text but it was a total bust. I think I used the wrong kind of printer.
Love the new logo at the top of the blog now- super cute!
Oh yeah we’ve been busy eating, hah. I tried it with text for the wedding using our inkjet printer and it was a total fail, too. This one worked like a charm (though the results are far from perfect as you can see!).
Those came out really well! What a fun idea (both the gift and the gift exchange with friends)!
I’m also really liking how the blog is looking!
Glad you like it Ashley!
Um, yes! That looks amazing! I definitely want to give this a go sometime – transfering photos to wood sounds scarier than it is, I think, haha. And boy do I know what you mean about the non-stop eating. I swear, at the end of the holidays I had a pretty sweet baby food belly going on.
Don’t be scared, it was pretty easy! Although I got frustrated along the edges because the ink peeled off a lot of the times, I think it’s simply unavoidable.
What a cool idea, and they turned out great!
I can’t wait for this recipe…I love salted caramel =)
Thanks! I hope you like the recipe, too!
What is gel medium? Like, what is the brand name and where could I get some?
I feel backwards because I have a laser printer but no gel medium.
It’s an art supply meant to seal/stabilize paint, I think (don’t quote me on that though, I’m not too sure what it’s for). Either way, you’ll find it in art supply stores like Blick or similar. I bought mine in Spain, but here’s a link where you can check out several… http://www.dickblick.com/search/?q=gel+medium&x=0&y=0&sp_cs=UTF-8
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