Black & White Photo Mat

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest... 

(at least I do [most of] the things I pin)

I had this in mind to make probably as soon as my nephew was born. I loved the idea on pinterest and thought it would be absolutely perfect to make up the mat of pictures from his first year and the main picture from his first birthday.
I made the collage of black and white photos around the colored 5x7 photo using a photo editing program called GIMP (which you can download for free here) It is supposedly similar to Photoshop and definitely takes some learning and getting used to.
I wanted to be able to print it all out as an 11x14 picture, rather than trying to cut out and glue pictures onto a mat. (By the way, my sister made the invitation; she's also quite crafty - she makes beautiful scrap books.)
I also made an 8x10 version with different cake smash photos for 'Mama and Dada' and for 'Grandpa'. The pictures on the mat are all in a line rather than overlapping as they do in 11x14.

The photo collage is a great way to display favorite photos without framing them all.
It's definitely a project worth playing with and a wonderful gift!