Meal Planning Board Tutorial and Supply Giveaway!

Happy Thursday, friends. I have a fun guest post to share with you today. Jaime's going to show you how to create a beautiful and functional Meal Planning Board for your family. Check it out!

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Hi everyone! I'm Jaime from OH SO ChiChi! Ok, when Amanda asked me if I wanted to guest post a tutorial for my Meal Planning Board ... I may have screamed just a little (or enough for my hubby to come running from the other room). Then I took a deep breath, sat up a little straighter in my chair, and composed a note back to Amanda! I've been a fan of Serenity Now for quite a while and am seriously, SERIOUSLY excited to guest post! Thanks, Amanda, for this opportunity! So here we go ....

This Meal Planning Board (originally inspired by Charity over at All Things Beautiful) is part of my Kitchen Command Center and is probably one of my favorite projects so far! It actually inspires me to cook and get a little more adventurous with our meals ... plus, it lets my husband get in on the action and clip-up a few meals that he'd like during the week.

Now don't be intimidated by all of the parts and pieces to this Meal Planning Board ... it's REALLY easy, I promise! I whipped this baby up in a little over an hour ... even with the "help" of a set of 3-year old toddler hands ... that includes making the the decorative clothespins and push-pins too!

Meal Planning Board ~ Tutorial

Let's get started ...

Supplies

Large Picture Frame

Cork Squares

Cute Fabric

Felt

Felt Scraps

Decorative Clothespins (tutorial here)

Decorative Push Pins (tutorial here)

Lettering

Scissors/Rotary Cutter/Glue

Grab your frame and toss the glass (or save it for another project).You'll just be using the frame and the frame backing.

Cut your cork to the size of the backing.

I used two pieces of 12x12 squares and cut them to size.

Glue your cork to the frame backing.

Cut your fabric and felt slightly larger than the frame backing. Lay your fabric face down, then your felt, then your corked backing.

Wrap the fabric/felt layers around the board and glue to secure, and place in your frame.

Flip it over and you have a cute and slightly cushioned fabric board! The felt helps make the board a little "cushy" (is that a word?) and gives it a more finished look.

Ok, get those the Decorative Clothespins ready! You can check-out my tutorial here. I used my Sizzix machine to cut the felt circles and the letters. You can absolutely use stickers or other pre-made embellishments for this too!

Space out your clothespins and simply push them into place! I started with Wednesday's clothespin in the center, then Sunday on one edge and Saturday on the far edge. Then it was simply dividing the remaining space.

Ooh .. they look like little clothespins soldiers all lined up in a row! This makes me smile.

Now cut those felt scraps into rectangles so you can create storage pockets for all of your meal choices. I chose to make 3 categories of meals and therefore needed 3 pockets. Again, I used my Sizzix to make iron-on fabric letters, but you can use stickers too!

Grab your decorative push-pins. You can find my tutorial here. You'll need 4 push-pins for each pocket. Pin your bottom corners. Before pinning the tops, make sure you leave a little extra room so there is space to slide your meal notes.

Simply push-in the pins!

Ooh! A cute little row of menu pockets! I made pockets for our "favorite", "fast", and "new" meals and so far it's been a good fit for the way our meals work here.

You can add a little row of glue along the bottom of the pocket to prevent the meal cards from slipping out the bottom.

Now you're ready to start planning your meals! I simply cut strips of regular printer paper and wrote out our meals by hand.

The finished product!

The Meal Planning Board is hanging proudly at the top of our Kitchen Command Center!

Thanks again, Amanda, for the opportunity to guest post on your fabulous blog!

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Wasn't that a fun project?

And...SURPRISE!

Jaime is the creative mind behind ChiChiKids on Etsy; a cute shop filled with Custom, Iron-On Fabric Letters to embellish any DIY project! Her motto is "Chic Designs at Small Prices!"

Jaime is giving away a set of supplies to help you get started on your very own Meal Planning Board!
The Winner of the Giveaway will receive a set of 7 custom-made Doodle Dot Letters and 20 custom-made Sassy Letters in the fabric prints and letters/numbers of your choice! All letters come ready to iron-on, no sewing required! Jaime used the Doodle Dot Letters to embellish the clothespins on her menu board! She used the Sassy Letters to label the storage pockets on her menu board.

AND

Jaime is offering Serenity Now readers a 15% discount in her shop through May 14th! Just use the coupon code SERENITYNOW15 at checkout!

-UPDATE: GIVEAWAY CLOSED-

Here's How You Can Enter (Please leave a separate comment for each entry):
1. (mandatory) Leave me a comment with the name of your family's favorite meal.

For extra Entries:
2. "Like" OH SO ChiChi on Facebook
3. Tweet the Following: #Giveaway via @SerenityNowGirl! Win supplies from OH SO ChiChi to make a *Family Meal Planning Board*! http://bit.ly/exGRtA
4. Facebook this Giveaway with a link to this post
5. Join my Weekend Bloggy Reading party this weekend and link back to me or include my party button within your post for an automatic entry! (I had to draw names for a winner 6 times last week because people weren't linking back!)

Giveaway open until 10 pm (ET) on Sunday night. (open to US residents only)

---UPDATE--Giveaway Now Closed.

I hope you'll come back tomorrow to link up YOUR best post of the week to Weekend Bloggy Reading. Recipes, crafts, home decor, book reviews, funny stories, you name it. Come prepared to showcase your blog and find some great weekend reads.

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