Month: December 2015

DIY: Weekly Menu Planner

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, Food1 Comment

This first part is creating a chalk board which you could use for anything not just a menu planner. How ever in the end this is going to be a menu planner for the household.

Supply list for the chalk board portion:

  • Picture frame (size of your choosing)
  • Chalk board paint (got mine at the Dollar Tree)
  • Paint for the frame (acrylic paint from the Dollar Tree)
  • Paint brushes/sponge brushes (both that I use here are from Dollarama)

Optional supplies for chalk board portion:

  • Adhesive substance (I am using Modge Podge)
  • Glitter (from the Dollar Tree)
  • Anything you want to decorate it with really

Supplies for weekly menu portion:

  • Tape for the seperation of days
  • Letter stickers or cutouts for days of the week
  • Adhesive (I am using Modge Podge for extra stick for the letters)

   
We are going to start off with a picture frame (including glass) which I picked up at Dollarama. I chose the biggest size I could find as I need to fit 7 days on here.

 

After taking everything part I started to paint to paint the frame. This has been done in many thin coats (time consuming paint thin non-pours surfaces). In the top picture you can see on the righ the frame has three coats done on it and on the bottom the frame has two coats. After I had finished the third coat I let the frame dry for 5 hours. Another two coats then dry time of 4 hours. I did the final two coats and I started the glitter about 2 hours after. So in total there are 7 coats of paint on the frame.

   
 I proceed with the glass and chalk board paint after putting the frame to the side. I used a foam brush while doing this. Reading the bottle it says to give the first coat 4 hours to dry throughly. I did 2 more coats of paint in opposite directions; allowing 4 hours to dry after each coat. Now I used an extremely cheap foam brush and am not excited about the ridges. If it doesn’t work out or I do this again I will be using a roller.

  
Now I glittered the flat sides of my frame. I mixed (lots) of a pale yellow glitter with Mod Podge to the consistency I liked. I mixed more than I needed since I wanted to make absolute sure I had enough for an even consistency on the frame. I for saw the colours blending together. Red would have popped hugely since green and red are contrasting. 

*Glue was still drying when I took the photo.

 

Before the addition of the planner stuff, I have a plain chalk board. It looks pretty good like this. Now onto the final step and finished product.

  

I made 6 marks splitting up the 7 days of the week (I only did this on one side but you should do it on both). Now I was going to use washi tape or craft tape but I found border stickers I liked much better. After carful placing the stickers I did one small coat of Mod Podge just to make sure I had a seal. I don’t want these to rub off when wiping the board. The letters are stickers as well and I used the same procedure as the seperation lines.

There we have it a weekly menu planner (or a weekly planner of any kind). 

I will update this post if there are any issues I come across when using it in the new year.

Snail Mail: Falling Behind

On By jackiblosblackisIn Personal, Snail Mail2 Comments

I received a few more letters today. The only problem I have is that I have seriously fallen behind on writing my replies. I believe I have six letters awaiting reply. I decided I am not going to read the new letters until I am caught up. It has become over whelming and worse since I do have issues with my arm. It would be quicker to type up the letters and I would feel better (nothing against this I do have a pen pal who types thier letters) but I just enjoy writing so much.

I think I am going to try to get a reply letter done every couple of days to catch myself up. It is really hard on a person when you through a period of procrastination and when you’re ready to get on with life it’s almost impossible to catch up. I’ve got letters piled up, work piled up, cleaning schedule fell apart, and well organization hasn’t been getting much attention either. Let’s hope by the end of January I can get at least get my letter writing caught up.

Organization: Stickers

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, Organization, ScrapbookingLeave a comment

When I grabbed stuff to do the Christmas cards this year I found my sticker situation very stressful. In the beginning I did not have much of a system at all. I had a couple extra binders and put pocket folders in them. I preceded to label and sort the stickers into the folders. It was not very pretty but it worked me (better than a huge pile anyways). A year or so later Mom and I were going to garage sales and she pointed out a scrapbook accordion folder that was stuffed with stickers. I bought it of course.

Now over the last few years I have purchased stickers at cheap sale prices or at dollar stores. I than just threw them in on of the pockets of the accordion folder I now had. Now these stickers were about 80% organized before I bought them; so it could have been worse. For me though it was not my system and having two different spots just hasn’t worked out. 

   
 

I grabbed one of the large binders I had (was for the last university course I was in) and a bunch of page protectors I use for letters, cards, and miscalenous I receive from people. I’ve made make shift labels and taped them on with packing tape. There’s no garentee this will work out but at least I can take out the group I want and dump it out to see everything. The accordion folder hides the small sheets of stickers. So really what good is that? 

Not only that I needed another organizer for the specialty papers, print papers, and card stock I have. Seven years a go I had boughten an accourdion folder from Michaels (containing not so fancy print paper) in the regular scrapbooking page size. I have this filled to the brim. Everything works out in the end. 

  
In the end I used two binder and found more stickers that need to be put away properly. These binders are already bursting so I’ve got to finish up some of these projects and not buy anymore unless I have a current specific need for them.

What a Mess

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, OrganizationLeave a comment

For the last couple weeks I have been using the kitchen table for all the craft stuff I’ve been using with projects. It’s driving me nuts but because these DIYs have such long periods of drying time I am doing them simultaneously. It has been fusterating not to have that area to do other things though. I am hoping to have everything put back a way before the new year though.