With his wife Agnes' birthday right around the corner, Chicago resident Ernst Berlin was struck with the perfect idea for a gift: illustrations of their 8-month-old son, Jacob.

Berlin had two months to get the gift together, so he turned to the subreddit Reddit Gets Drawn and reached out to nearly 50 artists to see if they would be willing to create an illustration based on a family photograph.

"Twenty-three of them replied. It was more than I expected, but I loved all their previous work so i couldn't say no," Berlin told The Huffington Post. "I gave them all a set of 40 photos that I thought were my best to pick from -- [they could choose] whichever they thought their style would work best with. I didn't mind if there were multiples of the same photo done, i knew they would all differ."

When her birthday rolled around, Berlin gave his wife the additional gift of a 3-hour spa treatment so he would have time to hang the illustrations as a surprise.

"Honestly, I was worried about not finishing it in time," Ernst said. "Luckily it all worked out, but there are a lot more holes in the wall than there are nails!"

As to be expected, Agnes' reaction was priceless.

Take a look at how some of the illustrations turned out:

Check out the rest of photos and illustrations on Reddit.