Weekend Projects

As a teacher, sometimes you tend to take weekends for granted during the summer months when you are "off." I had a very busy and productive weekend that went by much too fast. My parents came up for a visit (these don't happen nearly as often as I'd like), but with 315 miles between us, there's just no avoiding it. I had a main project in mind this weekend, and I wanted to use my mom's crafty abilities and my dad's handyman skills to assist me. I do, however, feel a bit guilty that I put them to work while they were here. But I also think they enjoyed it too:) Not to mention I fed them two AMAZING meals while they were here (more on those later). Now bear with me because while I may post pictures from time to time, I don't always do the process part of the pics, just final products. I promise I will attempt to get better at this as my blogging ventures continue.

So I've basically already admitted my addiction to Pinterest! Well this craft project hails from that exact location, along with my food ideas....
If you are a craft person, you should be familiar with modge podge, a craft glue/sealant agent. This is  DIY modge podge wall decor.

• First, I had dad go with me to Home Depot where I purchased a 4'x4' piece of plywood. We got this sheet for about $20.
• When we arrived home, he sawed the sheet into 12 pieces of 12"x12" squares. Now I would keep in mind that after the sawing gets done, they may not be "perfect", but they were close enough.
• At Hobby Lobby, I purchased 2 bottles of glossy modge podge at $7.99 each (I didn't even finish one full bottle, so 1 should be sufficient). Since I didn't have any brushes, I purchased the foam brushes for $1.99 for a pack of 6 with 3 different sizes. My mom showed me a great coupon app that has many stores that offer coupons. I believe it was called coupon sherpa. I found a 40% off coupon for one item at Hobby Lobby. Now, this is also where I would buy scrapbook paper for this project, which can be $.59 a sheet for a 12x12. However, my mom is a HUGE scrapbooker, so she brought several books of paper for me to choose from. I was able to knock this expense from my budget.
• I also needed to purchase wall hangers for the back of the boards. I found a pack of 5 at Target for $1.94. I bought the hangers that have the jagged teeth. I bought 3 packs since I was making 11 pieces. 
• Another expense you may need to factor in is the paint. We bought our house almost 2 years ago and I still had paint left over. You would only need a small can for painting the sides of the boards.
• After the boards were sawed, we sanded the edges smooth and painted them with brown paint. Since it is June in Texas, it is ridiculously HOT! They dried rather quickly.
• We put an old sheet over my dining room table and placed the boards on them. I know where I get some of my OCD with organization and precision...my mother. She laid the pattern of the paper out and changed her mind about 7 times before she found the perfect layout for the squares. After that, she insisted that we don't get them out of order when we begin to modge podge the paper on there.
• Put a good amount of the modge podge on the board and stick you sheet on top. Then we used a straight edge to smooth it down to prevent bubbles. Let dry before applying the top coat of modge podge.
• After it's dry, we made sure we smoothed out all the bubble and applied to top coat of modge podge to the paper on the boards. Then we placed them outside to dry.
• Once dry, we sprayed an acrylic spray to top coat it to make it shiny.
• Then my dad, precisely measured where to put the hangers on the back and where to place the nails in the wall. We did a 3x3 pattern on the big wall with 1" between all boards. We started with the middle board and worked our way out. I used 2 additional boards to place on each side of a big front window. Here is the finished product!

Now, this dining area is a work in progress. I am still planning on adding more decor as time and money allows. I will definitely keep you posted!