In our church, we are counseled to set apart one night a week for a family home evening where there is extra focus on family unity and building testimonies. In our little family, we’ve finally reached a stage where kids fight over which assignment they want that evening :)
Mike asked me if I could make a FHE (Family Home Evening) board where the assignments can be visible to the girls so they would know beforehand what they were going to do that night, and I wanted to make sure the assignments were easily rotatable, with magnets.
I began with a cull piece of wood and a 12x12 piece of sheet metal, both from Home Depot. I always check the cull bin when I go there, sometimes I find great pieces of wood, and they are only 51 cents a piece!
Using my Silhouette software, I used a chevron pattern as my base and stretched and sliced it until it resembled herringbone. Then, I cut it out onto some vinyl to make a stencil for the wood. After painting my white basecoat, I put on the vinyl around the board where the sheet metal wouldn’t be covering it. (Note: When putting on the herringbone, either design it perfectly so you can cut it all in one piece- not doable on my Silhouette SD- or adhere them in columns, one by one, so you can get the spacing perfect. Or it will be imperfect, like mine)
This pattern would be really easy using rulers as a guide instead of a stencil, btw.
Once the stencil is on, take a second color of paint and paint right over the stenciled part. I dabbed my brush first, then gently smoothed the paint out.
When it is all dry, peel off the stencil pieces, and this is what you’ll end up with:
When it was pretty much dry, I just glued the sheet metal to the board using a Hot Glue gun. Silly me, the cold metal hardened the glue seconds after it touched the metal. So, put the glue on the wood, not the metal!
Next, I got the name letters ready. I found these wooden rectangles at Hobby Lobby. I painted them the same gray as the herringbone, then cut paper to fit. A little mod-podge later, and they were ready for name assignments.
I picked up some ceramic magnets at Home Depot in the same trip that I got everything else, and I simply glued those to the back of the wood name pieces.
I used my Silhouette to cut out our names, and to cut out the labels for the assignments. It was tricky getting them all on right…
And here’s why… sometimes I craft on a messy counter (for the record, 99% of the mess was from this project- it was spotless before I started! Oh, can you see our alphabet bean bags on the floor in the other room? Those are played with on a daily basis.) holding a naked baby because she’s spit up on all her clothes and I need to finish my craft before I start laundry. Keeping it real, people.
Anyway, after getting everything on where I wanted it, I was done!
Too bad our weekly FHE for this week has passed. Next week! And if you ever wondered what my kids’ names were… there ya go.
And, yes, I know “treat” is missing :) That was totally on purpose. Mike was disappointed, too! hee hee. Our only problem now is figuring out where to put the board so we can see it and use it.
I was thinking how this would work with chores too, not just FHE. They have lots of fun sheet metal pieces that are longer at Home Depot. There are so many things you can do with them.
