Magnet Boards Are Cool

I finished one of the projects for the girls' room.  A simple project that I spread out over 3 days, you know, so that I wouldn't exert myself too much for baby girl's sake.  It was pretty much a sit down project anyway.

Kate loves it and Ezra, the little artist, is coveting the art hanging capabilities.

Spencer just wants the magnets for science experiments and Jiles just wants the VW back.

Here's a sorta-how-to:

Materials:

• frame with a 2' x 3' opening
• white paint (or the color of your choosing)
• 2' x 3' piece of wood or cardboard to fit in the frame as a back (if your frame didn't already have a back)
• 9  8" x 12" galvanized metal sheets (@The Home Depot for 97 cents ea.)
• strong glue (I used Tacky glue which isn't the strongest of glues, but it worked)
• book to rip up (or the paper of your desire)
• Mod Podge (I used matte)
• paint brush

Day 1 - sitting at the back porch table:

 (no pix from this day. you'll just have to imagine)

step 1: I painted the frame from gold to white.

step 2: While that dried I Tacky-glued the 8" x 12" metal sheets onto the cardboard that fit the frame, and then put some really heavy stuff on it to keep it down while it dried.

The Home Depot does carry a 2' x 3' piece of metal that would've fit my frame perfectly, but I'm too cheap to spend the $20 that they were asking for it.  That is why I got the 9 smaller ones.  I saved $11 and it wasn't that much harder.  I had to cut one of them in half length wise with tin snips to make it work, but that was the hardest part of the whole project.  

tacky glue all dry and metal ready for the paper

Day 2 - sitting at the kitchen table:

on to step 3:  Rip up book and glue/Mod Podge the pages to the galvanized metal, overlapping if needed to cover all of the metal.

This book was in a box of discarded books from a local library.  I took it just to do something like this with.

I didn't look at the date until right before I ripped it, and I reconsidered.  It is from 1940.

But I ripped it anyway.

Cringing.

Kate helped me rip the pages and mod podge.  I have so drilled into her, and my boys, to love books and take care of them - not stepping on, drawing on, and definitely NOT ripping them - that I think that she had a hard time with it at first. 

As we ripped, and mod podged, and stuck 'em down, she asked me if I had even read the book.

"No, I haven't.  Maybe I should have, before I ripped it up."

"Yeah," she said sadly.

"Maybe you could still read it," I suggested, trying to lighten the situation, as we had already ripped half of the pages out and glued them on the board.

"I wouldn't know where to start," she sighed.

I thought for a minute about this using-book-pages-for-crafty-stuff trend.

I thought for a moment about the novel Fahrenheit 451.  

I wondered if I looked like a hypocrite to Kate.

I kept ripping anyway, and tried to explain the difference to her...

I felt sort of bad, but I just really like the way that it looks.

I think that she got it.  She usually gets things quite well.

step 4:

When all of the paper is on (all of the galvanized metal is covered), smather (Why did that get underlined in red? It is a word, right?) the whole thing in Mod Podge with a paint brush to seal it.  The paint brush that I used for the Mod Podge still had some yellow paint in it from a sun that I painted for Primary that morning, so little bits of it would show up here and there and run with the black ink.  It actually looked kind of cool and gave the pages even more of an aged looked.

step 5: Let it dry and then stick it in the frame.

Day 3 - sitting on the craft room couch:

step 6:  Break out the magnets, hang artwork, get out the magnetic letters and poetry, and whatever else and have fun.

Oh, and, side note, check out what Ezra did with the dried up paint while we were in the craft room.  "LOOK, Mom!"  He was so proud.  So was I.

It was all up to Kate and Ezra and I to have the fun. Jiles was sleeping and Weston was reading Eragon to Spencer.

We couldn't find "and", so "with" it was.

Here is a NOT SO SUCCESSFUL magnet board that I made a while ago.  I like the way it looks, but it is magnetic not so much.  I used magnetic paint on the back instead of metal.  I only did one or two coats, though (can't remember which), and adding the paper on top of that makes it not so magnetic.  Or you need really strong magnets to hold something on it.  I just use sticky tack instead.  I definitely recommend going the metal route for this project.  

sun & flowers and owl by Kate, rainbow by Ezra (with help)

No books were harmed in this project.  I printed off sheet music for the background instead.

p.s. - We find out tomorrow about whether or not I need to be induced at the end of the week.  I am on pins and needles wanting to know so badly.  I check out my belly every time I pass a mirror to see if it looks bigger.