The theme for the first week is Thanksgiving. To be honest, I'm actually not a huge fan of Thanksgiving - I don't get excited about turkey or most other traditional side dishes, I'm almost never in my own home for the holiday, and I just don't like the color scheme (I know that is a ridiculous reason to not like a holiday). I'd rather move on to celebrating and preparing for Christmas.
So - I tried to come up with a project that was (1) simple and easy to make, (2) inexpensive and preferably using things I already had on hand, and (3) versatile enough to use for other holidays or even everyday life.
I decided to make a simple magnet board for a narrow stretch of wall in my living room. I've actually been looking for an old shutter or two to hang there for a while, in order to create something like this, but since I couldn't find a shutter, I went with what I had.
I found a scrap piece of plywood in the garage that was the perfect fit, and painted it with two coats of magnetic primer. It should probably have three coats, because it really can't hold up anything even remotely heavy, but it works for now.
I used another scrap piece of wood to create the sign. I wanted to use paints I already had, so I tried to mix red and yellow to get a nice shade of orange. No luck - the mixed paint was bright pink instead - so I mixed a dark brown espresso color with an antique white, and ended up with color that is actually pretty similar to my wall color.
After painting, I added color of letter stickers I already had and placed them somewhat haphazardly (so I didn't have to worry about a straight line). When I was finished, the word looked a little off center, so I added the period to balance it out a bit. Then I drilled holes in the sign and tied it with extra ribbon to hang it.
The last step was to create the magnets themselves. I added magnet strips to a few clothespins and clipped different things I am thankful for. I'm planning to keep adding to it for the next few weeks.
I can think of quite a few ways to use it in the future:
- As a Christmas advent calendar - just change up the sign (or even use the back of the current one).
- For baby showers (I throw a lot of those) - just change the sign and clip up photos of the guest of honor, or ask guests to add notes for the new mom
- As a photo or memento display
You are going to get so much use out of your new board! It will be great at Christmas and loving the idea for a photo board!
ReplyDeleteWendy
What a great idea, I love that you made it work for everyday too. You could also post grocery lists, menus, coupons, or inspiration pictures. Or dress up the clothespins with scrapbook paper to coordinate with the parties and showers you host.
ReplyDeleteVery clever idea! I love that it's versatile. That's why I chose my project, too. It's hard for me to have too many seasonal things that only get used a few weeks a year. It's also a great use of the space you had. And, the fact that you used things on hand - three stars from me. =)
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up.
Really cool idea! And way to make use of that space.
ReplyDeleteLove it. I need more chalkboard paint in my life.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! I really love the idea of using this as an advent calender. It would also be great for displaying Christmas cards or birth announcements (if you throw a lot of baby showers, you probably get a lot of these, and I always hate throwing them away, but don't always know what to do with them.)
ReplyDeleteSo cute! What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteGreat use of the space and it's magnetic too? Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI made a similar magnet board for my kids and it still gets used all the time! Love to use it for things we are thankful for and think I'll use that idea!
ReplyDelete