[mother's day present]

We have lots going on this week...My youngest man, Kellan, is turning 10 on the 9th. My sister is graduating from college on the 11th. My dad's birthday is on the 12th. AND of course Mother's day on the 13th.

Phew.

I just showed you my sister's grad present and now I'm going to show you what I made for my madre!

A faux wood grain chalkboard frame thing! lol I'm sleep deprived right now so that's as good of a description as you're going to get.

ETC is currently selling unfinished wood frames in a lot of cute styles. I bought one, painted 3 coats of the same paint color (Martha Stewart Rainwater) as my sister's frame. After it dried, I taped up around the grooved edges with some painter's tape so the wood grain was only on top. I mixed some white paint with the Rain Water paint and, in small sections, painted it on top and then immediately took my handy dandy wood grain tool (also from Martha Stewart- got it at Home Depot!) and slowly, rocking forward and backward, dragged it down the small section of paint. I repeated that process till the top of the frame was done. Removed the tape. After that dried, I painted some matte varnish on top.

I took the backing board the frame came with and painted 2 coats of dark gray chalk paint on it. I took some chalk and, after it was dried, rubbed or "slatted" the surface with it. I took a dry rag and rubbed it in. Then wrote a heartwarming quote on it with a liquid chalk pen. Added a recent pic of the kiddos and it's finished!

Think my mom will love it??

And my poor dad is not getting anything "special" for his bday. But Father's Day is coming up soon, so watch out! ; )

Hope all you mother's out there have an extra wonderful, over flowing with hugs and kisses, sort of Mother's Day!

<3 Lindsey

[Seestur's Grad Present]

So this Friday the fam and I will be driving up to Flagstaff to watch my sister graduate from college! {YAY Hannah!!!!}

So EXTREMELY proud of her. She's going to make one amazing teacher.

After a few weeks of stressing, trying to decide what to give her for such a momentous occasion, I finally figured it out and made her a bulletin board for her classroom!

It was totally meant to be cause a coworker, Jamie, was teaching a super cute burlap bulletin board class at ETC and had a leftover cork/foam board thing and tacks that she sold to me for two bucks. Seriously. Two dollars.

AND then the store got a new line of fabric and one of the fabrics had a cool alphabet print on it (Summerville by Moda fyi).

AND THEN when I was trying to figure out the frame situation, my husband and I discovered Michael's had a build your own frame section (how have I not known about this yet??) and not only that, it was all clearanced!

So yeah, the stars totally aligned for this project. Best part, I only spent $30 bucks for it. Which means I had room in the budget to throw in a gift card too!

I didn't take pics while making this (sorry!). But it was so easy I think verbal instructions will be good enough.

SO....

I just covered the top of the 18x24 cork/foam board thing (not sure what it's called, but Jamie got it super cheap at Home Depot) with one layer of batting. I used some spray adhesive I had on hand to keep it in place. I sprayed the adhesive on top of the batting and carefully centered the fabric over the batting and then glued the fabric in place tightly on the backside. I scotch guard the be-Jesus out of the front and then I trimmed off my excess fabric on the backside. I cut a piece of 18x24 canvas I also had on hand (any coordinating fabric would work) and sprayed the adhesive on the backside of the board and then centered the canvas on top of it to cover up the raw fabric edges.

Since the build it yourself frame came in a dark cherry wood, I primed it and then painted 2 coats of Martha Stewart's Rain Water in eggshell on all sides of the frame pieces. I am so obsessed with this paint color I found that I decided to also use it on my mother's day present (post coming very soon!) AND I totally plan to either paint some walls with it in our future home or on our kitchen cabinets. Would be so cute, right?? Husband doesn't think so, but he'll come around in a few years I think : )

Anyways, after I painted all the frame pieces, I assembled the frame. Then had my husband apply some liquid nail around the inside of the frame and then placed the now padded bulletin board inside. I took some cans from the pantry and put them on the backside of the bulletin board to make sure the board was completely up against the front of the frame so there wouldn't be any gaping.

I took my tacks and my hot glue gun and glued some vintage looking buttons on top! Stuck them on the bulletin board, and here's the finished project!

And a close up of the pretty button tacks...

This would make a great gift for almost any occasion (depending on what fabric you used!) Or make it for yourself! You could also add some ribbon and make it a french memo board. Lots of ways to change it up : )

Oh! Almost forgot to mention, I didn't add any wall hanging stuff to the backside cause I'm not sure what the wall hanging situation will be in her classroom. But I did buy some of those Command picture hanging strips for a 18x24 frame (also got it at Home Depot) so that should work whether she has to hang it on a plaster or stucco wall.

Alrighty, think that's everything!

Be back in t-minus 5 minutes!

<3 Lindsey