Personalized Family Message Board

Today I wanted to share with you my latest sort of “trash to treasure” project. I took a thrift store frame, some paint, and a photoshopped design and turned it into a very useful (and cute I might add) personalized family message board!

I’ve been wanting to make a big family message board for a long time and it took me forever to decide exactly what I wanted. I knew I wanted it to be:

• not super expensive
• unique and personalized with our names and/or photos–something I could design in Photoshop
• large and in charge 🙂
• cute to look at with fun colors and design
• not necessarily a traditional calendar
• changeable if I wanted to update it later on

So I’m pretty happy with the outcome, it basically meets all of my criteria!

It’s the same idea that Kirsten used awhile back with her “Count Your Blessings” board: Grab a frame, add something inside the glass that is pretty, hang it on your wall, write stuff on it. 🙂

I grabbed a large frame at the DI (Utah thrift store) for about 8 bucks–it had seen better days. 🙂 Plus the print inside simply did not fit in with my other decor! I had something more useful in mind for this frame and could see its potential.

I primed and then painted the frame my latest favorite color: Blue Ocean Breeze spray paint by Krylon. There, there, much better. Look at the pretty details in the frame. I only did a few light coats because I still wanted a little bit of the wood grain to show through and I didn’t really want to glaze or stain or sand. Call me lazy.

I created my large photo insert in Photoshop–we’re talking 24×30 inches baby! (I made the chevron zigzag and quatrefoil patterned papers myself and the rest is from Digital Scrapbook Memories kit called “Celebrate”–check out those adorable pennants and scalloped border! Swoon!)

I didn’t want a calendar because I already have one, so I decided to make sections for each member of our family with a little framed photo and room to jot down our schedules or things to remember for the upcoming week or so, or even write each other love notes. 🙂 It’s hard to tell how big it really is. . . each person’s section is like 6 inches across and 12 inches down! I think I’m also going to use this for our Family Home Evening assignments, jotting down each week who gets to say the prayer, pick the song, do the lesson, etc.

Then I included a large space on the bottom half (about 12x3o inches) for writing lists or notes or quotes or scriptures, whatever we are working on at the moment in our family.I printed the whole thing at Costco (20X30 are only $8.99).

Bytheway, like Kirsten I definitely recommend using BISTRO CHALK MARKERS to write on your message boards. They are opaque and much easier to read and use than the regular dry erase markers, plus they don’t smudge when dry. I used a dry erase marker above with the scripture reference, and it just doesn’t read as well as the bistro markers do.

If you don’t have Photoshop or don’t want to mess with trying to create your own background or insert, you can also use scrapbook paper, or even wrapping paper. As another alternative you could find some fun fabric to stick behind the glass or you can use vinyl to create a calendar overlay, or you can even omit the insert and use your own wall as the background under the glass. Lots of possibilities with this project. You can make it on a smaller scale to fit your needs as well. It would be a great gift idea.

Here it is hanging on our wall in a high traffic area of our home! I’m hoping it’ll get a lot of use and keep us on track and organized with all of our schedules! 🙂 I love our new personalized family message board!

***Bytheway if you are interested in learning how to use Photoshop for digital scrapbooking (us Chicks love digiscrapping!) or other hybrid projects such as this one, I have to let you know about a retreat organized  and hosted by a local Utah company Digital Scrapbook Memories coming up THIS WEEKEND in Park City, UT! I am actually teaching a few classes at it and there are still some spots available if you are interested. I’d love to meet any of our readers! You can still purchase tickets up until the 14th which is this Thursday. 2 1/2 days chock full of awesome info about digital scrapbooking and Photoshop and FUN people. Oh, there’s also a photography class all day Thursday you can purchase too. Woo!

Here is more info about the class schedule and everything, including beginner and intermediate classes, prizes, swag and more. This is the 4th year I’ve taught at this retreat and it is a total blast.