Being Crafty....

is overrated! I decided that I was going to make Trammel's grandparent's gift for Christmas this year. I did what any person would do and jumped on pinterest and found the perfect gift. I decided on a Birthday Board. I convinced Trammel that this would be a great idea, and we jumped in the car and drove to Michael's. I made a list, and Trammel ran around the store like a crazy person while I checked on paint colors and embellishments. I originally wanted to go with circle wood pieces for the months and birthdays, but apparently everyone was making the same thing for their loved ones this holiday season, and all the circle wood pieces were gone. The only thing they had left were the hearts. Not my style, but perfect for the grandparents. The paint colors I went with were sand, pale blue, dark blue, and white. Again, not my style, but perfect for our Mimi and PawPaw. All the directions are listed below..... The supplies are listed at the bottom.

1. Paint the large wood piece the color of your choice (sand). I also went ahead and painted the heart pieces (pale blue). Painting the little hearts was a PAIN in the ass. You have to paint one side, let dry, paint the other, let dry, and then do the sides. I didn't use spray paint, but it could be an option. 2. Next, I outlined the name with a white paint pen. I had intended to use this for the entire name, but realized that it wasn't going to work. I outlined it, and then painted it with white. I used the dark blue color for the "established in" under the name. I took the large heart wood pieces and glued them along the bottom with wood glue. I then painted the first letter of each month on the pieces.
3. This is where it got to be really frustrating, so stay with me. I bought large eye hooks for each month, and then smaller eye hooks for the small hearts to attach each birthday. We screwed the large eye hooks in underneath the hearts (2 inches from each side, and then 1 inch between each eye hook). We used a hammer to nail them in a little, and then we screwed them in by hand (OUCH!). My fingers were so sore, and I kept flinging eye hooks all over the place. I ended up in tears, I was so frustrated. Probably not the best idea with me being 8 months pregnant. Husband to the rescue! Trammel jumped in and installed all the eye hooks for his little wife. He used needle nose pliers to screw the eye hooks into the wood.

4. Once the board was put together I had to start on the birthday hearts. These are the smaller hearts, with smaller eye hooks. As I mentioned in step one, I had already painted all the hearts. All I needed to do now was put the little eye hooks into each heart. Because I wanted them to attach to each other, each heart needed to have an eye hook in the top and bottom. I used a small drill bit piece to start the holes in the top and bottom of each small heart, and then I screwed the hooks in. Even though I bought the smallest eye hooks I could find, they were still cracking the wood when I screwed them in (again, it was a pain screwing all of these in). I had to use the wood glue and fill in the cracks, wait for that to dry, and then repaint the hearts. I just hope that it all holds. Once the paint had dried for the second time, I used a sharpie to write the names and birthdays of all the family members.

5. Once I had everything completed, it was time to put it all together. I used the needle nose pliers to undo the eye hooks and attach all the hearts. It was pretty easy to hook all the hearts together, I just had to be very careful with the already cracked hearts. On the back, we attached hanging materials. Below is the finished project. I was very happy with the way it turned out, but not sure that I would do it again. I am also lacking patience these days (thank you, baby Hoehn!), so you never know.

Materials:

1. 24 x 8 wood piece (I used 24 x 12) $8.00


2. 12- 1.5 inch wood pieces for the months (I used hearts) $2.00


3. lots of 1 inch wood pieces for the birthdays (my family took 20) $5.00


4. 3-4 packs of eye hooks (get the smallest you can find) for underneath the months, and to attach each wood piece. You will need at least 2 for every family member. I needed at least 40 for the family plus 12 for the months. I ended up buying around 70. This was a good thing because I lost a lot of them during the frustrating parts of this craft. $10.00


5. Acrylic paint of your choice $5.00


6. Wood glue $2.00


7. Paint pen and sharpie (already owned)


8. Paint brushes, different sizes (already owned)


9. Needle nose pliers $5.00


10. Small drill bit used for making jewelry (this is to poke the holes in the little hearts to get the eye hooks started) $4.00

Total cost= $41.00, but some of the cost came from things I could use again.