Tuesday Tutorial

Finally!!!

I always feel like I've accomplished something when I have something to show for it...no matter how difficult or easy the project may be.  This week (actually for the past several weeks) I was looking at our FHE chart, and I must say it looked pretty pitiful.  Seriously!  It was too the point where I'd ask, "Who's conducting this week?" and someone would answer, "The invisible monkey!" or "The one eyed tiger." 

 Now, we all knew who those animals were, but that's not the point...the fact that our chart was so worn out that we had to say something like that just gnawed away at me.  It was time for a new FHE chart.  

Luckily I got a sale flier for Roberts Craft, and they had a great deal on their magnet boards so...I hit the sale, got everything I needed and more, and went to work.

Here's what you'll need for the board:

*A magnet board (any size will do...whatever works for your fam)

*A 2 oz. bottle of paint (your color choice)

*Modge Podge

*Craft Paper (to coordinate with your paint...opt.)

*Paint brush or sponge

*Letter Stickers (regular or vinyl...I really wanted that cool Crikcut Expressions machine that you can program in what you want, throw the vinyl through, and voila, instant gratification, but at $250+, I settled for the stickers...maybe one day, *Big Sigh*)

*Any crafty embellishment you want to add.

I started by painting the board.  You may have to sand the wood a little to get it all prepped for paint, but mine with just MDF and needed no prep.  As the paint was drying, I cut the paper to the size and shape that I needed.  If you would rather just keep the paint, that's fine too...you can

 just stick your letter's or embellishments on top of that.  After the paint was dry, I Modge Podged on the paper and left that to dry.  Then I grabbed my stickers and went to work on the various FHE jobs that I wanted on the board...Conduct, Prayer, Song, Scripture, Lesson, Activity, Treat.  I added Family Council at the bottom because once a month we've decided that instead of having a lesson we'll have a family council.  To

 finish off the board, I added a few little things to make it more personal...our name, a quote, etc.  Voila...board done!

You could use several things to show who's doing what.  I chose to use magnets with our picture on it because I thought it would be an easy way for our little kids to know who was doing what, but you could use wooden shape cutouts, wooden initial cutouts (this was my second choice), etc...I'm sure the kids would get a kick out of decorating their own FHE chart magnet.  Anyhoo..

Supplies for magnets:

*Decor Accent Marbles

*Glossy Accent Clear Glue

*A picture

*Magnets (make sure they're strong enough for the marbles...I'm gonna have to replace my because my magnets are too weak)

*Glue gun

Here we go...cut the picture so that it is approximately the same shape and size (or just slightly smaller) than the marble.  Use your finger to spread a little bit of the clear glue on the backside

 of the marble. Place the picture face down in the glue, smooth out any bubbles, and then use your finger to spread a little more glue on the backside of the picture.  When the glue is dry, use the glue gun to stick the magnet on the back.  Done!!  FHE board, complete with personal magnets!  Easy Peasy!! 

Wouldn't this be a great way to assign chores in your house too!  I considered buying a bigger magnet board that I could put both and FHE chart and a job chart on, but I couldn't decide where I'd want such a big board.  How about this...if you do a job chart, why not get some of those little magnetic containers (the ones that you can actually put something in), stick the kids names on them, and when they are finished with their chore you could put their reward (money, tickets, stickers, candy, etc.) in the container.  How fast would the chores get done when they can actually see an instant reward???