This was a super fun project to make. Although I wasted a lot of paper and photo ink, in the end, I now know how to do it wasting less materials. :)
I can totally see my husband shaking his head right now thinking about all of the paper and ink I wasted from his office! LOL
Okay...so when I first saw this idea on Pinterest, I fell in love with it and immediately envisioned how I would make this for Brynn's next birthday party, since she was next in line.
I combed through my photo library (16000+) to find the perfect "face" photos from birth through her fifth year of life. I tried to figure out which faces were about the same distance from the camera and/or about the same size. Then, I edited them and changed the color to black and white.
I then printed out each photo on regular printer paper to figure out how close in size the faces actually were when I lined them up side by side. After re-sizing several of them, some were printed in 4x6, some in 5x7 and some in 8x10. I took some to Costco and printed there, which was, by far the cheapest place to print. I also printed some at home.
I then cut out all of the faces (with her ears attached and some w/ braids intact and lined them up in order from youngest to most current/oldest.
I sorted through my piles of scrapbook paper and found a bunch of different fun patterns to make the hats. I also found a bunch of fun "accessories" to add to the hats, such as little flowers, boa feather material, borders, jewels, stickers, and more. I started mixing and matching the paper w/ the accessories. This was the best part! :)
Then, I cut a triangle shape and used it as a pattern for the rest of the party hats for each head.
After assembling the hats, I had to figure out how to hang this banner. I didn't have the same materials that were shown in the Pinterest photo, so on to Plan B. I attached fishing line to the tops of each hat with scotch tape. Then, I used my scrapbooking gun to secure each baby face to a long piece of ribbon to "anchor" the faces and keep them facing the same way. After some readjusting, Dj helped me hang the banner above our patio doors in the dining room. It turned out perfect.
In hindsight, the banner was a little too long for the area we hung it in. It looked great, but next time, I would make it a bit shorter.
The cost of the project was ink and photo printing, but the rest of the stuff I used to assemble and decorate, I already had on hand.
A fun, easy project that turned out super cute and it was a big hit at the party.
