Family Rules

Here it is. Our family rules board. This whole project started because of this ginormous quilt Tom and I saw in California. You can see the story about that here. Then of course after becoming blogger-savy, I started looking around and found out that other people had already done this! Oh, the horror! My idea really was not my idea! Rats. But, I did use our own rules AND it is huge.

So, I was going to put it on an artists canvas. But a 48x48 canvas is close to a hundred bucks and I just didn't want to fork over any more money for this thing. So, I used hardboard. Which makes it a really heavy project, but at $8.50 for an 8x4 ft piece, it's cheap. So I had Home Depot cut it in half and I gave one half to my neighbor so she could make a chalkboard and I kept the other half. It had been sitting in the garage painted and waiting for awhile and we finally tackled it.

I spray painted the whole thing white and then we really decided we wanted to make it more of an art piece, so we sat down and Tom helped me calculated the spacing for each line and how much paper I would need for each line. He's a pro like that.

Then we laid everything out. 

After it was all laid out, I of course realized I didn't have the right Mod Podge and had to run to Ben Franklin. I got a large bottle of matte finish mod podge. And when I tell you I used the whole bottle, I am not kidding. I was afraid I would run out.

I put the stuff on the board, then the back of the paper, then the front of the paper. After it was all dry, I lined up the vinyl letters (Thank you, Ginger from the middle of nowhere Wisconsin for the cheap vinyl!) and placed them on the board.

After that was finished I brushed on some Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze. Then cut up, painted, and roughed up some 1x4's and stapled the 1x4 to the board. (On the chalk board we attached the boards together with the Kreg, but this time, I didn't.) We'll see how it holds up. One thing to remember when using power tools - ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION. Cause if you don't you may end up getting shot in the eye with a stray nail from the pneumatic nail gun. I swear. I must be a true home improvement girl now. First I was shocked putting in the dimmer switch. Now, shot in the eye with a nail. Wait until I tell the story of Tom getting shot in the hand with a nail gun.....

Here's the finished product. I had a spot I wanted to put it, but now I think I'm changing my mind. Once I get it up, I'll take another photo.

(Hi Millie!)

It was a long, fun project and I am totally in love with it. Porter has already read it with me twice!