Menu Planning Board

A customer sent me this link to a Menu Planner and asked me if I could make one.  She wanted to give it as a birthday gift to a friend.  This friend has some of Sara Mincy's artwork in her home and really likes that style.  As I looked at Sara's blog I noticed she has lots of bright colors, mixes solids, stripes and polka dots and even has some collage type designs several places in her home.

The way this board works is that you write the meals you make for your family on pieces of cardstock.  On the back of this you write what ingredients you need to have to make it and the location of the recipe.  This helps with planning your grocery shopping list and makes finding the recipe easier.  You can color code your meals to help with variety.  Example: Red meat on red cardstock, meatless meals on green, chicken/fish on yellow, easy meals (soup/sandwiches, eating out, church dinner, etc.) on white.  Use whatever works for your family.  Then you can use packing tape to laminate these meal strips for durability.  My customer is taking care of this part of the project so I just made white strips (1.5" x 3.5") to help me with spacing.  The strips are stored in the top box.  The meals you choose for the week are attached to the appropriate clothes pins and after the week is over moved to the bottom box.  Once the bottom box is full, all strips return to the top box and the process starts over. This helps prevent constant repeats.

I started with an 11x14 canvas.  I cut scraps of scrapbook paper and cardstock into squares and rectangles and Mod Podged them all over the canvas.  I then gave it a couple extra coats of Mod Podge for durability.  The eventual owner has several young children and will hang this in her kitchen so I tried to seal everything for durability and ease of cleaning.

I wrapped washi tape around the edge of the canvas and then sealed it with at least 2 coats of Mod Podge.   The clothes pins have washi tape on the top that is also sealed.  The days of the week were stamped and then punched out and backed with another punched circle from cardstock.  Again these were sealed before being adhered to the clothes pins with Multi Medium Matte. The clothespins were adhered to the canvas using hot glue.

The boxes were made by covering thin chipboard with cardstock.  Decorative edge dies were used on the corners.  The boxes were sealed and adhered to the canvas with hot glue.  The letters, heart and star were painted with acrylic paint.  After being sealed they were attached with hot glue.  The star, heart and scalloped border were given Enamel Accent polka dots.  Strong magnets were attached to the back with Glossy Accents so that it can be hung on the refrigerator.

This board was a lot of fun to make.  I haven't used this much paint and glue in a long time.

Tip for Top Tip Tuesday: When covering clothespins, to make coating with paint or Mod Podge easier, clip the pins to a folded piece scrap piece of paper. Line the pins up on one edge and tuck the other side of the paper under something heavy on a bookshelf.  The fold allows them to hang free to dry.

Supplies:
Cardstock & Patterned Paper - Many from my scrap basket
Stamp Set (Scrappy Cat  - Letter Sweater clear stamp set)
Ink:  VersaFine (Onyx Black)
Other items: Plaid Acrylic Paint (Black, Real Blue, Red Apple), Mod Podge (matte), Bella Blvd Washi Tape (gulf Dot), Craft Essentials Washi Tape (red and blue dot), My Favortie Things Die-namics (Mini Scallop Edge), Spellbinders Die (Fair Isle Border Petites), Marvy Circle Punches (3/4" and 1"), Wooden Letters, Star, Heart (Plaid Wood Letters 1-1/4" Collegiate), clothes pins (Canvas Corp - Canvas Home Basics), magnets (Horizon Group Super Strong Neo Magnets), Ad Tech Hot Glue Gun/Glue Sticks, Enamel Accents (white)

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:
Always Anything Goes With a Twist Challenge #6 - Use a Canvas
Scrapbook Blessings Club #33 - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion Challenge #239 - Begins with B (board, boxes, blue)
Top Tip Tuesday Challenge - Use 3 or More Papers
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use at least one star

Thanks for stopping by today.  And don't forget to step out of your comfort zone (bright colors are outside of mine) sometimes when crafting and see what happens.