Magnetic Board Tutorial

As promised, here is my magnetic board tutorial.  This is the one that I finally made for myself.

You'll need an unfinished magnetic board from your craft store.  Robert's Crafts carries them in my town.  If you can't find these, and you're handy, you could get yourself some sheet metal and make or buy a frame.

The first step is to disassemble the board and sand the frame with 150 grit sandpaper.  You could go down to a finer grain if you wanted. That's just a personal choice issue. Peanut Head would, but I never let him watch me do this part.

After I sanded my boards, I ran an old sock with mineral spirits over the frame to get rid of any excess dust.

Then I gave the frame a couple coats of paint, letting it dry between coats. I just use leftover latex paint from painting the various rooms in my house. We have a lot of paint because I've done a lot of painting over the years.

After the frame is painted, you'll want to cut some squares of coordinating scrapbook paper to adhere to your frame. I cut 3" x 3" squares for my boards.

Next, you take it all outside and hope there's not a breeze. In Idaho that statement is sort of ridiculous. I did this on a gorgeous day and I was still chasing my squares all over the yard.

You could do it all inside, but this stuff is stinky like you wouldn't believe.  Plus, you might get high off of it.  Which you might like, but personally I don't need to be losing any more brain cells. I need every last one.

Here's the spray adhesive I use.  You can find it at any craft store.  It's gross and sticky, and it will get stuck on the tips of your fingers and never come off.  Well at least it takes awhile to get it off and it creeps me out.

I have this little OCD quirk where I don't like stuff on my hands. You should see me make chocolate chip cookies.  I wash my hands like 85 times just for one batch of cookies.

After you get the squares of paper on, you can add a name and any stickers that you want on the board.  Also, you can put as many or as few squares of paper on the board as you choose.  The less is more rule is really hard for me to follow.

I have impulse control issues.

Aren't these little glittery flower stickers cute?  I love them.

I really love them.

This one is my very first boy board and I had so much fun working on it.  I used wood stars from the craft store on it too.  I sprayed them with the nasty spray adhesive and then stuck scrapbook paper to them.  Then I painted the edges to give them a finished look.

I love this J.  The red bandanna paper is my favorite.

I also found these way cute stickers at Roberts.  

After you get all your paper and stickers on, you'll need to protect them with a clear coat of some type.  You could use Modge Podge, but I really like to use this stuff.

It's a water-based Polycrylic Protective Finish and it's easy to clean-up and it goes on nice and smooth.  You can get it in a satin finish or a gloss finish.  I like the satin for this particular project.  

You can find it at any home improvement or hardware store, but be prepared, it's a little pricey. It costs about as much as a can of paint of the same size.  It's worth it though.

The last step before putting the boards back together, is to tie ribbon around the frame.  You can use a lot or a little, it depends on you.  For this boy board, I didn't use a lot, and I only used manly colors because I didn't want to emasculate the poor guy.

I even went easy on the girl board for a change.  I think the paper was busy enough.

Oh yeah, and don't be a bonehead like me, and make sure you keep the board right side up when you start this little project.  You see, there are little hangers on the back of the frame that kind of dictate which way the board can be hung.

Ha, ha, it was sooooo funny.  Not.  I did all three boards upside down.  What are the odds of that?

I made Peanut Head put some eye hookey things on the back and string picture wire, so it's all good now.  For me anyway.  He's such a good sport, but only because I amuse him.