DIY Magnet Board Photo Wall

Sara and I are 2 out of 5 kids in our family. In just over five years our family of 7 grew to 15 people. Between weddings, graduations, trips and having babies there have been LOTS of moments captured; all of which my mother tried to put on her kitchen walls. Needless to say, it was starting to get really cluttered. So for her birthday I decided to solve the problem and give our mom a nice, big space to display photos of her cute grand-babies.
For many years now I have looked at this blank wall as I’ve walk up and down the stairs at our parent’s house. After looking for a solution to where all of the pictures could go, that my mom wanted to have around I couldn’t have found a better place! So last year while I was staying there over the holidays I drew up some plans of how I wanted the wall to look and what would allow for the most pictures. The magnet boards makes it easy to hang and interchange a lots of pictures, plus the ledge on top adds additional space for framed pictures.
We started by adhering sheets of metal we got from the local hardware store with liquid nails that we cut down to the size we wanted. We also put a nail in each corner to secure them. My dad and husband were great handymen for this project!
Then we framed the metal sheets with 1x2s. Going along the top we did a 1×4 with a piece of molding over that to give it some detail. On top of all of that we added a photo ledge using another 1×4 and a thin strip of wood to the front of that to keep the frames from slipping.
After caulking all the edges, it only took a couple coats of paint to complete this project.
When I was showing our mom my plans for this before I even started I could tell she was a little hesitant and didn’t really see my vision. Because I never come up with “over the top” projects that are hard to bring to reality. In all honestly thought this was a really easy project once I figured out all the measurements and made all the cuts. Plus it cost less then $100!
I couldn’t be happier with the final results and neither can our mother. She says she loves going up and down those stairs now and looking at all the pictures of her family.
After doing this project, it’s made me want to do one in my own home down in the playroom. Hum…the wheels are turning again!
-HANNA

Linked To:
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2014/02/23/sunday-best-link-party.html
http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/106-lets-party/
http://upcycledtreasures.com/2014/02/the-makers-link-party-6/
http://diyshowoff.com/2014/02/23/diy-party-5/
http://cityfarmhouse.com/2014/02/inspiration-exchange-linky-party-38.html
http://placeofmytaste.com/2014/02/work-wednesday-36.html

DIY Magnetic Paper Dolls

My daughter, Mia is a total girly girl. She loves all things princess and dress up. Awhile back we were going on a long trip and I was looking for some cheap ideas and toys that would keep her entertained in the car when I got the idea to make these magnetic paper dolls. So for those of you with summer trips coming up now that school is almost out this is a great project to do for your little ones to entertain them in the car. 
The supplies for this quick project are pretty straight forward. For the magnet sheets I would recommend getting the Staples white magnetic sheets over the Avery brand. I feel like whatever you print on the Staples sheets hold up a lot better and are stronger magnets. This is pretty much the only thing you’ll have to buy and for a pack of 4 magnet sheets it’s around $10 but I only needed 2 sheets for this set so it only cost me about $5.
 photo nativity3.jpg
The next step is to find some printable paper dolls. At the time I made this Mia was on a “Frog Princess” kick meaning we’d watch that movie at least 2-3 a week. So I went with a Frog Princess themed magnetic storyboard and paper dolls. I was able to find a set of printable paper dolls online and then just looked for a few more of the characters, accessories and a background through just searching in Google images. The amazing thing is that there are printable paper dolls for just about any of the Disney movies online if you look around. I found a lot of them on THIS website and for all those “Frozen” lovers there are some and many more you can download by Cory Jensen on his Facebook page HERE.

After downloading the paper dolls I wanted I used Photoshop to get everything to fit on the 2 sheets. Once that was done I just printed it off onto the magnet sheets and cut them out. For the background I printed the one I found online out on card stock and mod-podged that to a cookie sheet making it easy for Mia to play with this in the car.
Mia couldn’t wait to get her hands on this as I was making it and when I finally got it all finished she was set for a good hour of entertainment in the car and of course this followed with having to watch the movie.
Since this set I have made 3 others when she needed something new to play with. Also, we now have a “Little Mermaid” magnetic paper doll set on our fridge which Mia loves to play with while I make dinner.

Linked To:
http://www.bravenewhome.com/diyers-link-party-2/
http://upcycledtreasures.com/2014/05/the-makers-link-party-week-19/
http://justagirlandherblog.com/hit-me-with-your-best-shot-20/
http://iputabirdonit.blogspot.com/2014/05/linkn-blogs-27.html