CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Family Home Evening Board Tutorial

Our church has asked us to hold Family Home Evening every Monday night. This is a chance to teach our children gospel principles and grow closer as a family. I have loved watching my children learn and I have grown to be really excited for every Monday night!!
 
My kids were starting to argue a lot about FHE-I didn't like that! They would argue over who's turn to teach the lesson, pick the treat, etc, etc. I knew I needed a board. And I knew where I wanted it-in a really narrow space! I found this online and loved it!
 
 
This one of course is horizontal and I needed vertical. I realized I had to make one myself. Using this as my inspiration I came up with this:



So here is my tutorial that some of my friends have asked for!

Family Home Evening Board Tutorial:
(Please excuse my low quality pics that I took at night!)


1) Get some wood from Home Depot or a local home store. I used MDF and it worked great! Have them cut it there to the size you want. If you want cute beveled edges like my board find someone in your area that can do that, unless you have a saw that can do that!
 
2) Paint your board! My friend who cut the edges offered to help me paint this and used magnetic paint. It wasn't working well so we gave up-but if you want to put many, many, many coats on you could try it!! I wanted to ensure a strong hold, so opted not to rely on the magnetic paint. Of course we distressed the edges a little for a shabby look.
 
3) Get clear magnetic frames. The ones I got are from Walmart.com and are 4x6 size.

4) Get your vinyl.
 
5) Trace each one of your frames on cardstock and cut out. Take your pieces of cardstock and space them out along your board where you want them. Trace them with a light pencil. Don't forget to account for the vinyl labeling under (or on top of) each frame!!
 
6) Get sheet metal from Home Depot, Hobby Lobby or some other craft/home store. Make sure it's magnetic!!! Cut a rectangle big enough for magnetic frame to attach onto. It doesn't have to be cut perfectly straight or pretty because you won't see it! My hubby used a saw, there are scissors that cut through sheet metal as well.
 
7) Glue metal pieces in center of rectangles you drew on board with glue. I used this:
 
 
Should look like this:
 
 
 
Here is the back of the frame, it comes with the magnet on it already:
 




8) If you want to decorate your frames now is a good time as the glue will have to set overnight!!!
 

9) Once metal has dried onto wood overnight, put vinyl onto board. I really just eyeball mine. And then voila! You're done!  You could also get vinyl and put it at the top with the title "Family Home Evening" but I didn't have room and did a separate sign for that.
 
My kids LOVE having this board!! They love looking to see who is doing what and changing it out every week. I also love it because it stays "neat" looking all the time unlike the chalkboard options I was looking into. (I know my kids would want to fill it out-and that's okay) but this way it stays put together. And I can change out the pictures as the grow. I got extra frames so if we need to add people we can. It's SO easy! I hope this helps anyone looking for a fun FHE Board craft!
 
~Anna~