Craft Display Board for Kids' Rooms

There is a big bulletin board in our kitchen dedicated solely to the things the boys have made.  They love having their artwork on display and it makes me smile to see those crooked little letters spelling out their names and the dried beans on these masterpieces.  The bulletin board is always full!  

In one of those "a-ha!" moments I decided to make a display board for each boy so they could display some of their favorite pieces in their rooms (and thus alleviate the burden on the bulletin board a little)!  

I raided the wood scrap bin at Home Depot and found a pieces of MDF that I thought would work perfectly.  One of the pieces was too long, so the guy cut it for me (28"x6"x 1/2").  They charged me a whopping $1 for each piece!  I love when that happens! I primed the boards as soon as I got home with some basic BEHR primer from HD.  Once dry I sketched out the letters and vehicles:  

It was only AFTER I sketched everything out that I decided I didn't want the boards to be white.  Great ... all that work and I was going to have to do it all over again (sigh).  But blue it was going to be.  I had some blue paint left over from one of the bedrooms, so I just used that.  Two coats later, I was ready to start the fun part.

Again I freehand drew the images and letters using acrylic paints I had on hand.  I chose to freehand it because I really wanted it to be a handmade piece (i.e., imperfect) as you can see here:

You can usually find stencil letters at places like the dollar store or Walmart if freehand isn't for you.  

You can usually find really cute stickers and "wallies" at the dollar store that would work really well for this kind of project.  I used foam bathtub wallies for the Nursery artwork which turned out great for very little expense.  

The most expensive part of this project were the clips, which I finally found at Staples for $1.98 each (plus tax).  They were the 1 1/2" magnetic clips if you were wondering.

I'm still thinking about whether I should spray paint the clips black or not ... I kind of like the shine as they are.  At any rate, I can't attach them with screws until I decide.  

Here is a picture of one of the display boards on the floor with artwork on it - gives you an idea of what they will look like once they are up on the wall.  I'll make sure to post pictures once they are up in the boys' rooms so you can see what they look like - I was just too excited to share them to wait for me to make up my mind :o)

What have you made lately for your kids' room?

- Kristin -

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