Two vintage Window Chore Charts

I promised to show you another project using my 'ole buddy, tin.  This project came about a number of years ago when I was trying to come up with a cute chore chart for my children.  Everything I saw online was too funtional and not "pretty" enough if I was going to have it hanging around every day.  I found an old window and replaced 3 of the panes of glass with tin.  I have two versions that I've done.  My first was this one:

I blew up a farm print on my printer to fit the top pane.  I found some cute folk-art pigs to laminate and put magnets on the back.  I then wrote the chores on the pigs and assigned chores to my kids.  I loved to say that our house "looks like a pig sty!  Time to do chores!" I also took some fun photos of the kids in overalls and cut out and laminated those as well.

I really loved this one, but after having this one for over 8 years (not to mention we had 2 more children and needed to add them) I was ready for a change.  I found this beauty and did a similar thing:

I fell in love with the style of this window and knew I had to make it work.  I knocked out all the glass, painted a couple coats of black paint and then used Glazier points to hold in the tin.  I ordered some vinyl lettering to say "Chores" and to decorate the side panes. 

I found these cute frames for the kids' pictures in the scrapbooking section at Michael's.  I glued magnets to the back of the pictures.  I typed up the chores and then used mod podge to stick them to clear floral marbles.  When dry, I glued on magnets (see a theme here?!)

This method of chores still works best for our family.  I can go lighter on them when they have a lot of homework to do or load it up for Saturday House-cleaning day. The kid's like to tease each other and I often find it looking like this (poor 3 year-old!):

I'm waiting for the day that the little stinkers hide all the chore marbles!

I find old windows at garage sales and once found a guy on Craigslist who had a barn full of old windows!  I bought around 30 and my gal-friends and I had fun making tons of things out of them.  Here are some we did:

And some internet inspiration for using old windows and frames:

I need your help!

I found these windows up in the Adirondacks and had to have them.  I got a free piece of mirror from Habitat ReStore and for $10 a glass shop cut it for me.  I used mirror clips to attach the mirror to the backs.  I still need to play with the arrangement since everyone that sees it thinks its a wagon wheel! Sigh... I don't want it to be country.  What do you think I should do to tweak it so it doesn't come across country-themed?  I'd love your ideas.

Should I paint them?  Would they look better spaced apart?  It's missing something but I can't figure it out yet!

I'm participating in Linky parties at:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2010/04/welcome-to-66th-metamorphosis-monday.html
http://iamonly1woman.blogspot.com/2010/04/check-me-out-saturday-week-12.html
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/04/party-time-excellent.html

Monogram FHE Chart

     We're finally back from a fabulous trip to Washington, D.C. for spring break.  We had a wonderful time, with gorgeous weather. It's still nice to come back home and get back to our routines.  I have so many projects I want to dive into but can't quite yet.  So here's a project I came up with about a year or so ago.
     Once a week our family holds "Family Home Evening", a night to be together as a family, have a nice scripture lesson, play games together and just have fun.  I've seen a lot of different chart ideas out there, but I wanted something that was also nice to look at and add to our home's decor. Since Monograms are quite the thing lately, I came up with this:

     The chart is made from tin so that our family's faces can rotate around to take turns for different parts of Family Night.  This is how I made it.

     I found a square frame from Kirkland's (mine is 21" square.)  I just found a finish I liked and one on clearance.  I removed the old art and glass. I then cut a piece of tin to fit into the frame (found at Home Depot in the heating duct section- usually a 24" x 36" piece for around $9.)

     I had a custom job done at an online vinyl site to say what assignments I wanted around the outside of the monogram.  The site I used was www.eaddesigns.com  and it only cost $8!! The wonderful ladies there customized one of their monogram designs for me ("personalized family monogram design 1) to a 9" diameter circle (be sure to leave enough space around the vinyl monogram for your family faces to rotate within the frame.)

     Next, gather your family members' pictures and use a photoshop tool to "circle cut" their faces. I then printed the faces out on magnetic inkjet paper (found everywhere-Walmart, OfficeMax, etc.) Cut the circles out and you have custom magnets to rotate around the chart.

     We love how it turned out and it's so fun to pass in our hallway.  Since we have more family members than assignments, we just double up on a few (as well as tag-team the little guy with Dad!)

     As you can tell from previous projects, I love using tin!  There are so many projects you can do with it.  Next post I'll show you two job charts are made from old windows and tin.  Have fun!

Family Rules Sign-Revisited

I'm being bombarded by a nasty sinus infection and just haven't had the time to pull together the post I wanted to do. Until then, I found another idea of how to make the Family Rules sign I did.  This was the original one I came up with:

Still love it and  how it turned out. It fits my decor perfectly. I've been picking up some more frames at Goodwill to make so others to sell and want to make one with a brighter color.  Well, someone else out there is on the same wavelength as me.  Look what she made:

Isn't this great?!  I love the brightness, yet the aging she did on it. You can read about how she did hers at http://viv-spot.blogspot.com/2010/02/subway-art-ballard-designs-sandpaper.html

The sanding really seems to be the secret.

I want my next sign to have this Robin's Egg blue color and patina to it:

Another variation on the family rules sign would be to just use random words that inspire you like this one:

Or this one:

                                                                         (from hollyandivydesigns at etsy)

My good friend, Shauna, made her version like this:

 I like how she used different fonts for each rule. You can see her method at http://mymixofsix.blogspot.com/2010/02/quick-subway-sign.html (a fun blog to visit.  She does amazing things for the holidays with her kids and is a great photographer.)

Obviously Typography art is really in right now.  Here's some other inspiration ideas:

(great tutorial at http://www.susieharrisblog.com/2009/07/inspirationpass-it-on.html)

(pottery barn)

(by coulson macleod)

 

(love these British WWII signs)

(pottery barn)

Well, that's it for today.  Hope you found some more inspiration for making your own vintage typography art!

Family Travels Map

     This is probably one of my favorite projects I've ever done.  My husband travels a lot for work and the kids and I often get to go along.  We also love our summer trips to go see family (most who live far away.)  I needed a fun way to display all our fun photos to remind us of all the great times we've had.  I came up with this idea after being inspired by a travel map I saw in one of those airplane catalogs (you know, the one with a million gadgets that you don't need and at costs you shouldn't pay?!)

     We keep track of where we've been by gluing on little, red rhinestones on the cities we've visited.

Around the map, we have room to display photos of our trips.  With all those trips, we end up with a lot of leftover coins.  I glued coins from all over the world to magnets and used these to hang up the photos. I LOVE how it looks!

Here's how I made this project:

I started with a HUGE frame I found for $5 at a garage sale.  It had just about the ugliest picture of a teddy bear I've ever seen in it.  But I saw the size and shape of the frame and grabbed it.  This barely fit in the back of my minivan, it's so big.  First, I painted the frame black.  I then cut a piece of very thin plywood to the size of the old backing. I then used liquid nails to glue a couple pieces of tin to the backing. I get sheets of tin at Home Depot in the Heating Duct section for about $9 for a 24" x 36" piece. You can use tin snips to cut the tin to size.
     After the glue dried, I used Mod Podge to apply scrapbook paper all over the tin.  I ordered the National Geographic world map from www.art.com (or www.allposters.com.)  I cut out just the map and used Mod Podge again to stick it over the scapbook paper. 

     I made a label in the center of the map, at the bottom.

Then, with your coin magnets, add your photos as you travel!

I included this picture of my little "tater tot" (and his cardboard "car tunnel") to show you the scale of this big map.  It's in our hallway so we can see it all the time.  When Daddy travels, I show them where he is.

     If you don't travel much internationally, use a large map of the US and do the same thing!  I'm looking to make another one soon, so I'll try to take photos of the process and post a better tutorial in the future.