Happy Birthday Reminder Board

Today, I have a fun craft project for you.  A Happy Birthday Reminder Board! Since I have a couple of very important birthdays clustered right at the beginning of the year, birthdays are on my mind right now.  I saw a similar board on Pinterest!  Don't you just love that web site?  This nifty board can also be used as a gift idea--or just keep it for yourself!  The lucky recipient will be reminded year round of upcoming birthdays, because who likes to send out “Belated Birthday” cards or just be forgotten altogether on their special day?  With this super cute board, it's an easy way to remind yourself of the birthdays for friends and family members.

      Materials used:

•  Wooden board
• Knob (or hook)
• paint your choice of color
• Vinyl your choice of color
• Cricut machine (or other vinyl cutting machine)
• Scrapbook paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Twine, string or ribbon of your choice
• I also used a two-step crackle process to crackle the paint (Anita's Fragile Crackle) found at my local craft store--this step is optional, but it helped give it a somewhat distressed look without any sanding.

 1.  You can purchase a board at your local craft store, or use what you have on hand.  Go wild and use your imagination.

 2.  I painted the board the main color and allowed to dry.  Then I applied the crackle steps.  (Instead of this step, you could just distress your board after painting.)

3. After the crackle was dry, I painted it again with white paint--but before it could dry completely (almost dry, but not quite), I took a damp cloth and removed some of the white paint…the drier you allow your paint to get, the better the results.  You won't be able to take as much off as much paint (out of the cracks and just in some areas where it has adhered. Your look will depend on how you use the crackle step, and how much white paint you take off.  There are a lot of options to create the surface to your liking.  As you can see in the photos above, I made more than one.  You can really see the cracks on the surface of the green one. The orange one looked very different from the green one when they were completed, I wish I could show you.  However the photos of the completed green one didn't turn out well enough to post here.  I liked both of them for different reasons.  And since they were both gifts for different individuals, it worked that in my favor they were not alike. 

4. While the paint is drying, use your vinyl cutting machine, (I used a Cricut) and vinyl to create the text “Happy Birthday!” 

5. Apply your letters to the board and attach a knob or a hook to your board. I found my knob at our local hardware store, in the drawer pull section.

6. Then, I used my Cricut again (you could use a punch, or even cut them by hand) to make tags with each family member’s name and birth date and some twine to hang them from the knob.  After the one top passes, move it to the back and the next one will be waiting to remind you. Voilà!  A nifty, little birthday reminder.

If you enjoyed this post, please click the button below and vote for me on Picket Fence Blogs.