DIY Sheet Metal Magnet Board

When we were putting the finishing touches on the playroom (after the alphabet wall), one of the things we decided to add was a magnet board at Nora's height. I was inspired by one made out of sheet metal that I saw on Pinterest.

Even after Googling, I could not find one that was made with any kind of existing frame, though! Most of the ones I saw required cutting trim pieces to size and gluing them onto the metal. Easy enough if you have experience cutting trim pieces on angles like that AND have a miter saw--neither of which we do. Also, a lot of the posts I was seeing talked about having to get the sheet metal from specialty suppliers.

But then I got a tip from a friend that the sheet metal was available at Home Depot. And when I went to check it out for myself, I discovered that it came in 24" x 36" size (for $20)--which is perfect, since that's a common frame size. Next, we went on the hunt for a good poster frame. Really cheap ones can be had for like $10, but I wanted the frame to be thicker than those. We ended up finding a good one at Walmart of all places, but there was one catch--it was brown!

Once we had it home, we removed the plexiglass from the frame and I spray painted it white--first with primer, then two coats of semi-gloss white spray paint. Perfect!

Yet there was still another small challenge to overcome. When we put the sheet metal in the frame, then put the backing back on and secured it with the tabs, we held the frame up to the wall and pushed on the metal part to see what would happen when we screwed it into the wall from the front. The metal pushed back against the wall, pulling away from the frame, leaving a big gap between the metal and frame.

Bummer.

We needed something to push the metal forward from the wall. The solution? A few pieces of foam core board. We cut a few pieces to size, fit them into the frame, put the backing of the frame back on, and sure enough--it worked out wonderfully.

Because the sheet metal and frame is pretty heavy, and it would be at Nora's level, we didn't want to hang our new magnet board from the hooks on the back of the frame. Instead, we decided to bolt it into the wall with a few screws, using drywall anchors. We estimated where we wanted the screws to be placed on the board, then made a little paper template to mark the place for the hole in each of the corners. Then, we used a metal drill bit to drill a hole through the sheet metal. We held the board up on the wall, made sure it was level, and then marked the holes with a pencil. Drilled, hammered in the anchors, and then hung the board up with the screws.

DONE!

And the thing is certainly not going anywhere anytime soon. It's definitely secure.

Nora loves it. The magnet board is a big win, and I love how it is something that can grow with her. Right now, she just likes moving the magnets around, taking them all off, putting them back on, etc. but as she gets older, she'll be able to start putting letter sounds and words together.

Oh! We got our letters (Melissa & Doug) at Michaels with a 40% off coupon. I really like that they are wooden, and the entire back of each letter is magnetic--there aren't any small magnet parts that can fall off. Eventually, I want to pick up some other types of magnets to give Nora some variety, but for now, the letters are good.

Cute, right? And despite the number of steps explained above, it's really quite an easy project. When we're cleaning up the playroom every night, I can't just put the stray letters back on the board. I always have to use them to spell as many completely random words as possible. Fun for the whole family, I guess. :)

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DIY Alphabet Wall

First, let me say thank you to all who left such kind comments on our playroom reveal post on Monday. It was so fun to finally be able to show you a little part of our house. Dare I say that it motivates me to finish other rooms just to be able to share those, too? :)

Anyway, I promised to follow up the playroom photos with some additional details about a few of the projects we completed for the room. The one that seems to garner the most interest from people--both online and in real life--is the alphabet wall.

Honestly, our ABC wall made the room for us. It's a pretty big wall, and before, it was a blank canvas, staring at us every time we were in there. Since it's a playroom without any real furniture, there was nothing against the wall to "anchor" the whole thing, so it was tough to figure out what we wanted to do with it. We considered some other art--prints, mostly--but all of it seemed too small. And a lot of the art I've spotted and liked (like this) is expensive.

I had pinned a few alphabet walls on Pinterest (like this and this), and I kept coming back to them as a solution for our giant wall. At one point, I showed Michael the photos, and he was sold. That, in turn, sold me.

I immediately began to seek letters. I wanted to find as large a variety as I could, and I knew from experience with other letter projects (Nora's name on her nursery wall, the D-A-D we did for Michael for Father's Day) that Michaels and Joann Fabrics only had a few varieties. But at some point, someone (maybe Niki?) suggested Hobby Lobby.

I don't even remember when Hobby Lobby opened locally, but there is only one here. It's relatively new, at least, and the crafty girl inside me is ashamed to admit that I had never been. Although it's not exactly FAR from where we live, it is somewhat of an inconvenience to get to, and Michaels and Joann's are closer--so I just never really had a reason to go to Hobby Lobby before. My search for letters led me over there, however, and I will say that as soon as I walked in the door, I was blown away.

Why hello, Hobby Lobby. Where have you been all of my life?

Love at first sight, people. And, as it turned out, for good reason--because I hit the freaking jackpot for letters at this store. Every time I thought that I had definitely found every variety they had, I stumbled upon another. That was the only complaint I had: their letters were scattered all over the store, not just in one easy-to-browse section. BUT let's just say that I was not exactly sad about having an excuse to scour every inch of the store.

After initially collecting something like 15 different letters at Hobby Lobby, we made separate trips to Michaels and Joann Fabrics to round out our alphabet collection. Over the course of a week or so, we collected everything we needed.

To decorate each letter, we also picked up a variety of acrylic paint colors (some I already had in my stash, others we picked out new), and some fun scrapbook papers. Then, we got to work. We spent several of Nora's naptimes and evenings decorating our letters. First, we laid them all out in order and I mapped out a plan to utilize a variety of patterns and colors. I made note of the color or scrapbook paper that we planned to use for each letter, and we did our best to envision what the finished product would look like (it was impossible).

Many of the letters were simply painted. With others, we painted the edges (or left them plain) and then I covered the front of the letter with scrapbook paper using Mod Podge. I used a foam brush to spread Mod Podge on the letter, placed it face-down on the back side of the scrapbook paper, and spread out any crinkles the best I could. Then, after letting it dry for several minutes, I used an exacto knife to trace the letter on the paper, cutting away the excess paper. Once I was done cutting, I covered the top of the paper (the front of it, the nice decorative side) with a layer of Mod Podge to seal everything and give it a nice protective finish.

Some of the letters were super easy, because they were already complete when we bought them (such as the C, the G, the N--printed on our computer, the O--a clock!, and the R--left unpainted).

I actually spray painted the J and the Z. The J is just plain white semi-gloss spray paint, so that was simple. With the Z, I first spray painted it all white, let it dry for 24 hours, and then taped stripes on it with painter's tape. Then I used black semi-gloss paint to spray it again. Once dry, I peeled off the tape, and ta-da! Zebra print.

Once the letters were all finished, it was time to figure out how to hang them all. First, we laid them out in a "pattern" on the floor to determine how many letters to put in a row, how much space to put between them, etc. I took photos of our layout on my phone to reference as I did the hanging.

Then, we had to actually attach hanging hardware to each of the letters. You know, the little hooks that are on the back of picture frames? A lot of the letters didn't have those, so we had to add them. We bought a variety of picture hanging hardware at Hobby Lobby, and I used different ones, depending on a lot of factors--the thickness of the letter, the amount of space on the back, etc.

Finally, it was time to hang everything.
I wish it went that quickly in real life. :)

It actually really wasn't that bad, but I did do it over a period of about 3-4 days. As you can kinda-sorta see in the slideshow (and in the photo below), we utilized a laser level for the top row to make sure we were working on a straight line. We also taped a yard stick to the left side to mark the left edge, and used painter's tape to mark the right edge. The goal was to hang all of the letters, fairly evenly, and space them out to span the entire length between the yard stick and the painter's tape.

To hang each letter, we used a variety of methods--picture hanging hooks and finishing nails, mostly. Again, it depended on the letter, the type of hardware we had used on the back, and how much space there was between the hardware and the top of the letter.

And then our alphabet wall was finally DONE! So we stood back and admired it. Every day. We still do. :)

Time consuming, but worth it. And educational, too. We're working on teaching Nora each of the letters already. (Just kidding. Kind of.)

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a monogrammed MINT cosmo bag from Penguin Personalization! It ends Friday, you know.

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A Six Pack o' Reindeer

OK, so... looking back (here and here), it appears as though I was really into reindeer this year. Again, I blame Pinterest.

As part of their gifts this year, we gave six packs of beer to my brothers, my father-in-law, and our brother-in-law. But they weren't just ANY six packs, you see. Each bottle of beer was dolled up with antlers, a couple of eyes, and a puffy red nose.

They were damn cute and FESTIVE, too! And really easy to make.

The antlers are brown pipe cleaners, cut to maybe about 8 inches long or so. I figured out the right length by experimenting a little bit, then just copied that length for the rest of them. The pipe cleaner is just twisted around the bottle neck, just under the cap. I didn't have any problems with it staying in place. Then, I cut little pieces to make additional points on the antlers, wrapping the shorter pieces around the longer ones.

The eyes are googly eyes, and the nose a red pompom. Both (as well as pipe cleaners) can be found in the kids' craft section at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Joann's, etc. I attached the eyes and nose to the bottles using a hot glue gun.

Some brands of beer are better than others for this project. For instance, it wasn't until I sat down to do it that I realized that the "neck labels" on Yuengling wrap all the way around the neck--not leaving me any blank space to glue the faces. So, I had to rip off the little labels, which didn't make for the best looking six-pack. And the Land Shark reindeer, while cute, didn't look as nice as the ones on the dark brown bottles. We bought the types of beer based on our recipients' preferences, so it didn't much matter to us--but it's just something to keep in mind if you're not sure which kind of beer to buy for this project.

All in all, it was cheap to turn these six packs into reindeer, and didn't take much time, either. It made for a nice little gift for the beer drinkers in our lives. And if you want to make them for someone who doesn't drink alcohol--the original pin on Pinterest actually used a six pack of root beer bottles, too, so that's an option.

That sums up my Christmas crafting this year. Unfortunately, I didn't get to all of the ones I wanted; I'll have to save some of them for next year!

Did you do any crafts for the holidays? Did they come out like you'd hoped? Did you find that others (or your recipients, if they were gifts) appreciated your efforts?

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"Five Snowmen" Ornament

Last week, I saw this project on a message board on The Nest. I obviously don't yet have any children of my own with which to do things like this, but I thought it would make a super cute gift from Hunter to my brother and Kara.

Today, Trevor and Kara had to work so my mom was babysitting Hunter for the day. Michael and I took a drive over to my mom's house with a box of six ornaments in hand. I knew it was going to be a challenge to get Hunter's perfect little handprint onto an ornament, so I was prepared to have to try multiple times.

Hunter was in a pretty good mood, which helped. The way we set it up: I squirted some white acrylic paint onto a paper plate. Michael held Hunter. My mom was in charge of the ornaments, and I was responsible for paint application and straightening out his little hand to stick onto the ornament.

As expected, it took multiple tries. Probably 10-12, to be honest. We were working over my mom's kitchen sink, and when we messed one up, she immediately rinsed the ornament so that we'd be able to use it to try again. We went through the six ornaments really quickly (none of them good!), and had to pause for a minute so my mom could dry them off for another round. Thankfully, by then we had learned from trial and error and we were actually able to get two decent ones during our second pass. :)

A few tips in case anyone tries this: I found that if he had too much paint on his hand, the handprint looked like crap. Also, it worked best to hold the ornament still, spread out his fingers, and then "stamp" the hand around the ornament.

I let the handprint completely dry before doing any other decorating. From there, the first step was to fill in and round off the fingertips a little bit so that they could be made into faces. Using the white acrylic paint and a paint brush, I filled in the fingertips so that they were solid white. Again, I stepped away for a few hours and let that paint dry, too.

Using a black paint pen, I drew on the snowmen's eyes and mouths. Then I used a tiny paint brush and orange acrylic paint for the noses, and also for the scarves and hats. I used white paint pen to write Hunter's name and the year.

The only change I really made to this project was with the poem. The post I had seen said to include the poem in the box with the ornament. I really wanted to include the poem on the ornament, so on the opposite side from the snowmen/handprint, I wrote out the whole thing using white paint pen.

These aren't just five snowmen
as anyone can see.
I made them from my hand
which is a part of me.
Now each year, when you trim the tree
you'll look back and recall
the Christmas of 2009
when my hand was just this small.

The final touch was adding the "snow" with a paint brush and white acrylic paint.

Since we ended up with two ornaments with good handprints on them, I ended up decorating an extra one to give to my mom (Hunter's grandma!), too. I'm extremely happy with how they turned out.

A cute project if you have little ones around next Christmas! They make wonderful gifts and keepsakes for parents and grandparents.

Merry Christmas!

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Baby Shower Invitations II

My future sister-in-law, Marie, and I are hosting a baby shower for my brother's girlfriend, Kara, in March. We are just starting to plan for it, and earlier this week, I was inspired to come up with a concept for invitations.

Some of you may remember the baby shower invites I did for my friend Bethany back in August. I loved those and wanted to come up with something different, but a design I would love just as much.

During my lunch break yesterday, I wandered aimlessly around Michael's. Marie and I hadn't really figured out a theme, or even a color scheme, for the shower. I kept going back and forth--Greens? Blues? Red? Kara and Trevor are having a boy, so I was trying to come up with something boyish that wasn't too cutesy. No baby blue!

In the scrapbook aisle, a piece of Halloween scrapbook paper caught my eye. When I first saw it, I thought that the little cartoons printed on it were bugs (turned out I was wrong). But that's when it hit me--Bugs!

After some rapidfire texting with Marie, we agreed to do a bugs theme for the shower. Not disgusting, creepy-crawly bugs, but cute, cartoonish bugs. For good measure, I also checked in with the mommy-to-be, who said she's OK with bugs. :) I'm so excited... the ideas are flying! I'm bummed the shower is still a couple of months away, but I'm sure it'll be here before we know it.

Once we had settled on the bugs idea, I went into the stamp aisle and found the perfect dragonfly stamp to use for the invitations.

When I got home from work, I jumped on the computer to design the printed portion, then got to work on cutting, stamping, and assembling a mock-up. I love how it came out:

What do you think?

Marie & I don't have to mail these until mid-February, so I just did the one for now. After our Vegas trip, I'm thinking a "drink wine and make invitations" night is in store for Marie and me. :)

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Baby Shower Invitations

My dear friend and bridesmaid, Bethany, is due to have her first baby (a girl!) at the end of October. Her shower is coming up on September 7, and I offered my help.

Bethany's sister called me on Friday and asked if I would be willing to make the invitations. I accepted that challenge and created a mock-up on Saturday. I sent photos to her sister for approval (she says they're awesome!), and then yesterday went and bought all of the supplies I need to make 65 of these babies.

So now, I have to somehow fit in making all of these invitations this week... in between my cake decorating classes (Monday and Thursday), my birthday (Saturday), and a BBQ on Friday night! Not to mention my Olympics obsession.

Yikes!

But then I take a look at the invitations and get all excited for Bethany's baby shower, and that I'm able to do these for her...

And seriously now. Aren't they adorable? (If I do say so myself.) They coordinate with the bedding she picked out for her nursery, which I used for color inspiration. LOVE them!



I get so giddy about this stuff.

Remind me why I don't do these things for a living? Oh, right. The need for a steady job with a steady income. Damn it.

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