Decorating with Portraits~My first Mod Podge Project

I have been all over the crafty blogs lately and have been dying to do something with mod podge.  I wanted a unique way to hang some individual portraits of my kids and had planned on doing standouts that I saw from my pro lab with a silver finish around the edge.  However, they didn't make them in the size I wanted (12x12), so my wheels started turning...  I then thought of wood and mod podge. 

I went to Home Depot and found a 2ftx4ft board that was 3/4 thick.  I wanted at least one inch, but I settled for the big board because it was only $10 bucks.  I had the guy at Home Depot cut my squares to a 12x12 and I got 8 of them! I only needed 4, so really only $5 for my wood (you can share with a friend or save it for another project).  My 8 pieces of cut wood below.

I decided on an orange edge, so stacked them up and first primed them and then sprayed them orange all together.  They got a little stuck together and my hubby had to help me yank them apart.

I also needed a little more around the edge for a border, so sprayed them seperated, too.

Since I was being crafty with my prints, I decided not to pay the extra $ for pro lab prints.  I am usually a big advocate of the color quality that a pro lab offers, but with this being my first project, I wasn't sure if the mod podge would alter the color anyway.  I also played it safe by sticking with a black and white print.  I saw that Sams Club offers a 12x16 print for about $3 each (wowzers).  I made up a layout in photoshop that looks like this:

I cropped my image to a 12x12 and placed in on a 12x16 and they trimmed for me. Now somewhere between the guy at Home Depot cutting the wood, and Sams trimming my pictures, I didn't get exact 12x12 on both--didn't quite line up.  The pictures were a tad smaller, so I ended up having a little border instead of having it flush as I planned.

I slapped a layer of mod podge on the wood and on the picture (not sure why that is necessary, but I read to do both) and then rubbed it on with my hand. After it dried (20 min or so) I did a little sanding to the edge, wiped it clean, then mod podged the top.  It gave streak lines--sortof canvas like.  I messed up on the corner of my oldest son, but oh well. 

My daughter showing how big it is next to her head.

I did also buy the orange spray paint (note to self, Joann's sells the same can of paint for $8 as Home Depot does and it's $4 there).  $21 total for the wood, pictures, spray paint, and had the mod podge on hand.

I feel oh so crafty...