DIY: Weekly Menu Planner

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.

One thought on “DIY: Weekly Menu Planner

  1. Pingback: Weekly Menu: January 24, 2016 – Chocolate Milk Cows

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