I love this family magnetic frame, but it needed an update.
For one thing, see the part of the star that’s bent and lost its paint?(Thanks to our dog who got under the bed to eat all the chocolate that was all ready to go in everyone’s Christmas stockings. In her chocolate frenzy she broke the star that Santa was so thoughtfully planning for my stocking. And yes, the dog lived.)
So first I spray painted the star and sanded the edges so some of the beige could show through.
Then I glued some black buttons onto my plain magnets.
Better, but still needing something.
(Isn’t that a great picture? It’s in our new back yard, just days before we broke ground to build our house.)
That’s what it needed – scrapbook paper for the background!
Mac came by and we had to go through the lineup of who everyone was.Much better! Family loves you for who you are.
My guy doesn’t ask for much in the way of crafts (yeah, a shocker I know!) so when he suggests something, I listen. He requested that somewhere in the house we have a birthday list so he can see when family members’ birthdays are. I thought that was a fabulous idea!!!
My friend did a craft class last week and she was doing magnetic boards as calendars. I knew that would be the perfect thing to change a little and make into our Family Birthday Board. I just printed up four pages with three months on each page, to cover the family birthdays for the year. My guy and I both come from large families and we’re adding five more babies to the family in the next few months – the families are growing at alarming rates!!! And very hard to keep track of (facebook certainly helps though!!!).
Start with a piece of metal – it’s about 9 x 14.
Its edges are nicely turned under so it’s not sharp.
Then you mod podge the paper onto the metal – both under and over the paper. And don’t worry – the air bubbles disappeared when it was completely dry. I like to do a cross-hatch pattern in my mod podge – kinda gives it a look of canvas when it dries.
Two little mini clothes pegs are holding on my sign and picture. And I love that strip of lace going through the middle – adds a nice texture to the board.
Stamped this with a dollar store alphabet set and then mod podged over it all for protection (it is in the kitchen after all – water fights have happened before!!!).
This picture was the right size so it’s doing the job right now, even though it’s missing the baby. In the future, I think a sepia photo would look lovely!
My cute as a button magnets!!!
I glued magnets on the back of mine too so it sticks to the fridge, but you could also hang it with a ribbon.
Lovin it!!! Lovin it!!!
And when new members join the family through birth or marriage, I’ll just write their names in the appropriate spot in black ink and then update the charts on the computer when needed. And I suppose I could even add anniversaries if I wanted to.
So do you want to know what my guy thought about the craft he inspired?
There are so many ways to “create”. In this post I’m not trying to preach, I’m just trying to share a way that might help you in your family to create meaningful family scripture time. Okay, okay – true confessions time! This picture was posed by models. It really was!!! It’s the dream image in my head of what our family scripture time should look like . . .
. . . everyone is awake, happy, dressed and groomed nicely. And they even have open scriptures on their laps!!!
And now . . . the following pictures were not posed by models. They are a more accurate description of what our family scripture time looks like.
I know, shocking, but true!
In our home we do our scripture reading in the morning. The evenings never worked for us – too much coming and going and just plain forgetting. This was one of those mornings when our 8th Grader had early morning sports (which means 6:30am scriptures for us) – so she’s the one who’s awake and taking the pictures of her sisters. I was still in bed!!!
Let me add that we’re grateful for modern technology that allows dad virtually be with us, even when he’s working out of town, so he can still share scriptures and prayers with us.
So why do we do it? I often ask myself this as my children wake me up for scriptures – yes, they wake me up! (Have I mentioned I have awesome children?)
President Ezra Taft Benson promised,
“When individual members and families immerse themselves in the scriptures regularly and consistently . . . testimonies will increase. Commitment will be strengthened. Families will be fortified. Personal revelation will flow.”
And Marion G. Romney said,
“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from The Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase: mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope and charity – the pure love of Christ – will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy and happiness.”
And that’s why we do it.
Let me share with you a book that has really improved the quality of our family scripture time.
We have a basket in the living room that holds various scriptures, and this book.
“Scripture Study for Latter-Day Saint Families”
It breaks each chapter into bite-sized pieces – for example, Alma 9 is broken into five segments. Verses 1-7, 8-13, 14-17, 18-23 and 25-28. And then in each segment there are activities, object lessons, stories, quotations, insights and questions. It’s fabulous – I highly recommend it!
We take one segment each day and it usually lasts 10-15 minutes. And it doesn’t require any advance preparation either! When I got this book about two years ago, there were also New Testament and Church History versions. It cost me just over $30.
We are almost finished the book – but we didn’t start at the beginning (we started from where we were currently at in our reading). When we’re finished, we’re going to start again, and then again, and then again . . .
So, I just thought I’d share something that works great in our family.
I think we need to share anything we can that will help us strengthen our families in these latter days.
I unpacked these little blue blocks the other day. But today I added the Be My Valentine words, because we all know that day of love is coming up in less than a month!!!
Originally I made the blocks for a Relief Society Party.
The purpose of Relief Society being: 1) Increase Faith 2) Strengthen Family and 3) Provide Relief.
Now that I don’t need the R.S. words anymore,
I thought it would be fun to make a bunch more words for the family to be creative with.
So I printed these on cardstock and distressed the edges. I keep thinking of more I should add, so I have a list for people to add more words as they think of them.
Here are a few other loving variations . . .
But right now there is only one possible message that could be on the blocks . . .. . . as she wrote her English Diploma exam today, with Math and Chemistry to follow next week. With them counting for 50% of her final grade, that’s a lot of pressure.
For one thing, see the part of the star that’s bent and lost its paint?(Thanks to our dog who got under the bed to eat all the chocolate that was all ready to go in everyone’s Christmas stockings. In her chocolate frenzy she broke the star that Santa was so thoughtfully planning for my stocking. And yes, the dog lived.)
So first I spray painted the star and sanded the edges so some of the beige could show through.
Then I glued some black buttons onto my plain magnets.
Better, but still needing something.
That’s what it needed – scrapbook paper for the background!
Mac came by and we had to go through the lineup of who everyone was.
Much better! Family loves you for who you are.
