Birthday Boards

Such a great Christmas gift, right?? Well, I hope my grandma thinks so!! The hard thing about shopping for grandparents is that they already have every thing. I decided to make these because recently we have had a lot of additions…new babies, anniversaries and babies in the way!!

I got most of my supplies from A. C. Moore since it’s right down the road from our house:

Supplies:

• Board

• Chips (get these pre-drilled from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dpB01NCW2E5H?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf)

• Acrylic Paint and/or wood stain and polyurethane
• Sharpie paint marker (I used black)
• Eyelet hooks
• 12mm jump rings (jewelry section)
• Paint brush
• Needle nose pliers
• Hammer
• Vinyl lettering
• Picture hanging hooks (https://m.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-5-Count-Large-Self-Leveling-Picture-Hangers/3034584?cm_mmc=SCE_PLA-_-ToolsAndHardware-_-PictureHangingAnd3m-_-3034584:Hillman&CAWELAID=&kpid=3034584&CAGPSPN=pla&store_code=86&k_clickID=121f17e2-6641-4147-b57e-63ca37f265f6&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgs7RBRDoARIsANOo-HhiAaqe7Xnt16gtH5WyGBfhnSjAxJqVnpfFuHLkUQ-rmHNaHF-QGcoaAhHNEALw_wcB)

Directions:

1. Start by staining your board according to instructions on the stain. For ours, after two coats, we applied the polyurethane and then let everything sit.
2. When the board is ready, place your vinyl lettering. We are lucky to have a friend with a fancy machine to do the lettering for us, but you can get vinyl lettering in the wood section at the craft store too.
3. Paint your circles. I also made a board for my mother in law. Her whole house is done in fall colors, so I chose my paint colors based on that. Some needed two coats, but the paint dried fairly fast.
4. Be sure to have a handy list of your relatives’ birthdays and anniversaries. This took a little digging around for me with some serious Facebook stalking. I used the sharpie paint marker to write the names and day number for birthdays and anniversaries. I laid them out by month as I went so I could change the colors up. I wanted the colors to be random. Optional of course, but I chose to organize by day. For anniversaries, I wrote both names, date and then drew a little heart.
5. Attaching the eyelet hooks nearly broke my fingers. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but I would definitely recommend getting a tool that attaches to a drill to screw those in, directly under the Months.
6. Pick two spots on the back to attach the hanging mechanism. Since they are self leveling, they don’t have to be perfectly spaced apart, but I did try to get it close.
7. Use the pliers to pry apart the jump rings and attach the circles together, then to the eyelet hooks.

Beautiful!! And such a great way to keep track of everyone. I added a couple special ones. My sister is expecting, so I added “Baby Green, est. May” and will send an updated one with the baby’s name when the time comes.

My favorite special one is for Baby Brianna. Our Uncle Chris had a daughter who died the same day she was born. I wrote “Baby Brianna” with her birthday and then hit glued little angel wing charms to honor her. This could be really sentimental for a relative or pet who might have recently passed!

My grandma and MIL will love these and I can’t wait until next year when I make them for my mom and my other Grandma!