Grandkids Picture Board, Mother’s Day Tutorial

I have a new friend and she has a craft night each month. (I have already determined she’s going to be a great friend because of this. She likes to read and she crafts, we’re going to be great friends!)

And of all the things that she was doing for last month’s project (March), was this super cute grandkids picture board. If you ask me, any grandma or grandpa would love this.

The grandma’s to my kids, they love their grandkids, and adore them. So my thought is: This is perfect, this will be their Mother’s Day gift. I don’t have to think of something, I don’t have to gather the supplies, I just go to the craft night, and pay some money for the supplies and be all set to go.

SCORE!

I gave her my money and put in my order for two, I, of course, was going to need one for each grandma. They would both love it.

Then, I found out that I had a conflicting engagement on that day, so I went to her house and gathered my supplies from her and set out to make it at home by myself. Oh, and with two small helpers too.

The thing that I like about crafts for someone else, especially for grandma, I like to have my kids involved, since it’s really because of them that this particular someone is called grandma. Mostly, my 5 year old is my helper, as he’s the most handy and is home the most right now. (Not quite in kindergarten yet.)

Here is the board that we are starting with.

I understand she got it at Michael’s, if you’re looking for something similar. Normally I would just cut my piece and router the edges, but…. it wouldn’t have these pretty edges, so I’m glad we went this route.

Next I took my sander and went to work on the edges.

See? The edges weren’t as smooth as I would have liked them to be.

Then, I had to decide how I wanted it to look. The letters she gave me are white vinyl so I could pick either a bold color or stain it. So I went with my favorite thing: stain! It goes with everything and looks pretty. This is the particular stain I used:

This is both stain and a polyurethane clear coat and only goes on and doesn’t have to be wiped off. (Please note: all stains are different. Some are applied and then let sit for a couple minutes, and then wipe off the excess. Some you just put on and let dry. Look at the instructions on the back to see what that particular brand recommends.)

This stain recommended using a bristle brush, but I did not follow directions, and chose to use a foam brush.

Another side note to staining: I would recommend doing it not in the home, preferably outside as stain… stains. You do not want the bucket accidentally getting knocked over on your floor. Also, I don’t like the smell going through my home. So we sat outside. And you know those two munchkins I talked about earlier? They were soooo helpful!

My two year old thought he wanted to help paint, or just sit in my lap. Or he wanted to touch them after they were stained but before they were dry.

My five year old?

He was watching the water run along the curb. I remember doing this as a kid and was fascinated by it. Now my kids love to watch the water flow down the street to see where it stops… silly kids. Gotta love them!

So after the stain dries, once again, look for the manufacturers suggestions on the back of the bucket. I brought them inside to apply the lettering.

My friend has a Silhouette machine, which allows you to cut any kind of font you have on your computer out of Vinyl. It’s pretty awesome. (And expensive too, I understand, but hers was a gift, lucky her!!)

So I take the lettering and decide how I want it to fit on the boards. The “Grandkids” is in two pieces, so here is how I laid it out on the board.

Centering the “grandkids” I pulled the backing off of it and laid it where I wanted it on the board.

Now you can see the lettering much better. Next you’re going to take a card, like a credit card, or that scraper that you use on your Pamper Chef stoneware, and rub it over the letters to make sure they stick really well to the board.

And then you’re going to very carefully and slowly, pull off the contact paper.

I actually used my card at the same time I pulled the contact paper off. That helped make sure the letters stayed on real well. Isn’t that lettering just cute??? I love the hearts!

Here’s the first line… love it!

Now I had originally planned to do the “makes life grand” part straight across the bottom, but I decided to change it. (That happens regularly in the middle of a project.)

Just do the same steps with this one. Go over it with a card and pull off the contact paper.

And there it is.

Now it was time to do the second one. And I did it a little bit differently.

Now it’s time for the clothes pins. I decided to paint them bright colors to make them pop.

Two sets. A set of 7 for my mother-in-law (between her and my step-father-in-law they have 7 kids, not all have kids yet, but I was thinking that it would allow there to be one for each family when that time comes). As for my family, a set of 6, I am the only one with kids and we never know if or when we’ll have any cousins on that side. So a nice even 6.

Next I asked my husband which one he wanted to give to his mom. I liked the first one better but decided that the second one would fit the clothes pin better. So that’s the one we chose to give to his family. I used hot glue to put the clothes pins on. I’ve been told that hot glue and wood weren’t exactly made for each other, so they might not last forever. I would recommend possibly using tacky glue, but I couldn’t find mine, so that’s why I used hot glue.

And here is the finished products.

Aren’t they cute??? I love how they turned out. I’m not sure which one I like better. But, one will be going with me to Grandma’s house during spring break (his mom) and the other will be shipped (my mom).

Now you might not be able to get vinyl lettering like this, but I do have another way to do lettering with painting. Obviously you could use stencils, but I promise to put a tutorial on how to do lettering from any font on your computer and paint soon. It’s quick and easy, I promise!

Until then, have fun make your grandparents a new present.