Valentine's Day lollipop cards

Saturday I was finally able to finish up Cameron's Valentine's Day cards and get them in the mail!
Here's the final product!

I know this Valentine's card idea is not very original (it's all over Pinterest right now) but when I saw it I knew that's what I wanted to do. I guess the original/challenging part of the whole thing was attempting to get a 15 month old to 1. stand still for one second, 2. hold his arm out to the side, 3. look somewhat pleasant. Most of the cards I've seen have older kids on them. But I'm a sucker for a challenge and I want what I want so of course I set about torturing myself to get it done.


I did at least 10 mini photo shoots with Cam just trying to capture him in the right position. At first I tried to get one of him standing (to show off his new walking skills) but quickly realized it was never going to happen. So then I isolated him in a chair and handed him the lollipop, hoping to catch a shot with his arm stretched out and reaching for it. Getting him to do that was easy but getting him to do that and look into the camera and smile was again, NEVER going to happen. So eventually I just gave him the lollipop and let him have at it, hoping I'd come up with something.

This is the mediocre shot I came up with (I Photoshopped out the lollipop). It kind of works but it was still not what I wanted. I was just going to go with it when a week later I realized that I could take video footage of him and from that take a still picture of one frame. (I used my iPhone5 to take the video. You can easily take a still pic from video by scrolling to the frame you want and pressing the lock and home buttons at the same time. Click here for more detailed instructions and a visual.)

This made it so much easier since I just handed him the lollipop and/or treat while he sat in a chair and hoped that I could find a frame that I could use. (In the pic we ended up using Cam is holding a Goldfish cracker in his hand which worked out perfectly since I didn't have to Photoshop out a lollipop.) It took four videos to FINALLY come up with the shot I used on the card. It's not crystal clear because it's a still shot of a frame from video but I think it's soooooo much better than the one I was going to use! 

So that's it peeps. That's how you get a one year old to strike a pose for you!