Best Menu Board Ever (Magnetic Menu Board version 2.0)

We love it and use it regularly. It gets rotated every other week; I know what the meals are left I have to work with and can move around as needed. Everyone that comes to my house also loves it and some ask how I made it. And every time I realize I still haven't posted how I did it. I can't believe I haven't posted this one yet! (I rarely post anyways, but this one should have been a priority.) 

Let's go back a few years....
My Original: Menu Board 1.0

When I made it, these were my Menu Board Requirements:

• Menu cards that could be moved around easily (writing a list for the fridge or dry erase didn't work)
• 2 weeks worth of meals - starting on a Friday (b/c that's the day I shop for most of the food)

The problems with the old version (picture: brown/green) is that each meal card had to be 'crafted'. I wrote it on cut up poster board (for stiffness), then "laminated" it in contact paper (I do own a laminating machine now, but I still don't want to laminate every meal I can think of or want to try), and then a magnet had to be glued on the back of EVERY meal card. 

Eventually, I realized, that wasn't going to work unless we ate the same handful of meals over and over again. (And some families do, but we don't.)

So, in 2013 (I think?) I decided I would make a new one with New Menu Board Requirements:

• (still) easy to rearrange meals
• (still) Friday to Thursday 2 weeks
• Week layout is more standard (Sun-Sat)
• Cards can be made quickly and cheaply and PRINTABLE
• (still) magnet backed
• Only uses 14 magnets (1/day rather than 1/meal)
• More professional looking (not crooked paint job!)

And we love it! So much so that I am now making my 2nd gifted menu board!


Here is one I made for my sister in law:

Here is one I made for my other sister in law:

Ready to make one yourself? Let's go!

First- supplies for the board (and where to get some of them):

• Large frame (at least 20" wide, 24" wide is better - any height)
• Magnetic sheet metal. (Lowe's; I recommend 24" wide)
• Download one of my printable file... Or Computer skills
• Large print of menu board on paper (office dept, FedEx, etc)
• Lamination of menu paper (same as printer or educational supply store)
• Tin snips (Lowe's, etc) , optional
• paint, optional (for frame)

Supplies for the cards and where to get them:

• Individual Baseball card holders, rigid plastic (one per meal on board = 14 for me) (Amazon)
• E6000 epoxy glue (Walmart)
• Magnet sheet (enough to put about 2" x 2" square on each card holder) (Walmart)
• Index cards (3x5")
• Index card box

(cut into 3x4 grid to get 12 magnet pieces from 5"x8" magnetic sheet)

Additional commentary on supplies:
Frame and Metal:
I tried thrift store frames (which I've used for other projects), but for these, the timing didn't work out - but poster frames or backless frames (from hobby lobby or michaels) work well here.
I like to paint thrift store frames I use for projects.

The sheet metal needs to be at least as big as your frame. Find it in lowe's or home depot in a section that looks like this:

My sheet cost about $11.

And not all sheet metal is magnetic. Take a magnet or grab one off the row that sells magnets to test each sheet before you buy.

The leftover piece will probably get trashed. (I don't really feel like trying to flatten it out and put a gash in my hand. My craft and cooking record is prone to injuries. Hence, my husband cutting this for me.)

You can trim to size with tin snips. (We got some with my first sheet metal craft, so cutting to fit whatever frame I find is my preferred method.  Note: Thin metal is easier to work with, like 22-26 gauge.)

Alternately, you could buy sheet metal first and then buy a frame to match size from a retail store. Hobby lobby and Michael's have these frames you buy in pieces so you can create any dimensions you want. (I had to do that with my menu board because the sheet of metal was leftover from another project and there was no frame on earth that size.)

Menu printable

*All of these will fit the menu cards/holders as described below but some are a tight fit and some have more margin around the card holders within each day.

Here are ones I've made:
The first style is for a  10x20" frame and just changes out the picture in the corner.

This next set is 15  x 24" frame with different fonts and b/w coloring options

This last set is for a frame that is 18 x 24"

 

 These next two are revised (after I made hers I realized the squares were a little squished).

And one more size in case you happen to have it 16"x20"

(Those are all jpg - and if you click on them, you are welcome to download them and use them.)

For your own size or style, use Microsoft publisher, word, Adobe Photoshop, or whatever you're comfortable with to make your own. (Or send me a message --{ incredibeth (at) gmail (dot) com }--  and I can draw one up for you!)

You'll need to print out your design and laminate:
To print one designed on the computer, I use office depot. They accept .pub, .doc, .pdf, .jpg, etc and will print and cut to size. Black and white is cheap. Color... not so much. (Other places like FedEx are similar.)

(It cost me $1.50 to print 18x24 black and white print.)

To laminate it... Your home laminator probably isn't wide enough, if you even have one.
Office depot and FedEx and most places that print will also laminate things for you, but the educational store right around the corner from an office depot is cheaper here.

(The educational store is about $3 to laminate this, office depot is about $6 - one of these times it was raining and so I just laminated it where I printed it and paid the extra $3.)

I stick with black and white, but you could also design it on computer, print in black and white, color it with art supplies, and laminate it afterwards. Be creative.

Once you've got the pieces, it's easy! Put the laminated menu paper on top of sheet metal and put it in the frame.

Next we'll do the menu cards. 
Once you make the card holders you can make hundreds of meal cards for minimal cost. (And that was my goal in version 2.0)

For the menu card holders, you'll need rigid baseball card protectors. I find them on amazon. (I'm not sure if the "super thick" packs would hold the cards without slipping so I get standard sleeves.)

Here's a link to a few on Amazon and a picture in case those links all break one day.
Ultra Pro Baseball Card Holder Sleeves

Sportcards Collecting Sleeves

This is the part where measurement is important.  I'll explain what I do and leave you to decide your plan.

I print 2 meals on the blank side of a 3x5" index card, side by side.

I trim along the red line on the other side to make it shorter so that it fits in a baseball card holder sideways.

Then I cut the index card in half. (I have all the baseball card holders trimmed to fit half an index card sideways.)

Every time I have a new meal (well, 2 meals), or even a slight modification to how I wrote it previously, I just print out a new index card.

For the card holders, I measure or just insert a meal card sideways - trimmed to less than 3" x 2.5" (half of a trimmed index card) - and leave a border of plastic to match the sealed edges of the card holder. Then i trim the excess.

Once you have them cut smaller (cut off the end with the opening! Not down the side or bottom.), all that is left is gluing a magnet on the back.

I like flat magnets, like magnetic sheets or magnetic cards (size of business cards) or even those magnetic vent covers from hardware stores!

If the magnet doesn't have adhesive (or if the adhesive fails), to adhere the magnet I use e6000 epoxy glue.

It probably isn't necessary, but in menu board version 1, I had some fall off - I had used hot glue to adhere them to contact paper covered posterboard - and they needed to be re glued, so I didn't take chance when I updated. I sanded the back of the baseball card holder a little before I glued the magnet on.

The reason I do the cards/holders this way is because I wanted something I could print lots of meals over time and not have to re craft another couple cards every month forever. I also didn't want a fail meal to be a waste of a magnet. So I decided to use index cards. They almost fit sideways in the baseball card holder and are too tall, so leaving either as is didn't work.
 So I modified. I like it almost square.

If you want to design your board to fit full size baseball card sleeves, go ahead. You'll need to print on sheets of cardstock and cut meal card to fit sleeve. Maybe you can find a different clear plastic sleeve that fits some card size you have? 

I hope this was easy to understand. It's certainly easy to make and easy to modify for fitting what you find. And it is so nice to have meals planned and to be able to move and reschedule that menu as necessary! And the kids actually prefer! looking at the board to see what's for supper instead of asking me.

Please don't look too hard at the amount of effort (or lack thereof) I put into making this blog post look professional. I just wanted to get the idea out there so others could make one too; no time for professional this month.

summer chart 2013

And so our summer vacation begins (school ended last week around here)...

Last year I made a calendar for June and July out of posterboards. Each day was labelled with an activity (handwritten) on a little piece of cardstock - with a hand drawn picture to match. (Some were rough...working on my art skills here!) :)

First, we had a countdown to summer chain - each day was labelled with the date and what was going on that day. They took turns cutting them off.

 off to the side of the calendar were posted these: (I think the drive in movie got added on the 27th later - I'd have to go back and check my calendar?)

But by July I was getting tired and the house was getting awful....

By August, I was DONE. 

They still asked every day, "What's the activity for today?" 

The activity is getting ready for school later this month!

I really liked the idea of a daily activity, but when the weather was too hot or we were tired or the house needed cleaning or errands needed to be run or I felt obligated to show up at the gym I was still paying for (well, I still am this year, but I don't care this summer)....the 'daily activity' sometimes got pushed to the next day and it would stress me until we completed it.

.     .     .        

Long story short - 

This year, I knew I needed to plan the fun but also list our 'normal life' along side it with room for more organization and planning. 

We'll see at the end of summer if this is over planning and what parts I want to keep for next summer! (Every summer I try something new - I had a few rejected ideas this year I may try next year.)

This year's summer chart:

I started with posterboard and cut three bright SUMMER IS HERE kind of colors to make it about 24x36 

(I relocated this later - which was a pain, but don't let the pictures confuse you.)

I stapled it right to the wall. (They're easy to take out and the holes are tiny that they leave.)

I covered the "seams" with ribbon and the border - the ribbon got glued down since the posterboards are temporary, unlike the wall. :)

I decided to use frames for two of my charts so I could write/erase as needed.

I did hang them "through" the poster, but when I relocated it, I also just hot glued them in place. (They're from the dollar tree...it was worth the $2 not to have them move all summer.)

And my months are smaller, but labelled with a weekly THEME rather than daily activities and the details of the week will be determined the week of.

That way if I'm busy or something comes up, I can alter the activities around that. If I have more time than we thought, I'll add something in.

I have activities in mind (some pinned on Pinterest, some in my head, some the kids have requested)...I just listed them on notecards under the heading for each week so I can remember my ideas when we get there.

And then, I added that to the board under the calendars so I don't lose them!

A closer look at my stuff....just in case anyone wants to use it too.

 I doubt this one will help anyone as it's got my kid's name on it, but the general idea might help someone...or you can just laugh at my over scheduling (which already failed on the first day as shopping for our 2-week grocery run took well past 11 am.) Ah, the joys of grocery shopping with 5 kids at multiple stores. :)

 It's not a super strict schedule, but more of an outline...and if we get behind, then something will have to be dropped...something fun.
"Choose a room sticks" means all the common areas will be on jumbo popsicle sticks and they randomly choose one and that is the room they have to straighten before Dad gets home from work. The 3 year old will get automatically assigned the hallway/foyer because it's the only one she's capable of doing without step by step instructions.

 Here's hoping this altered summer chore plan will work out better than last year's. :)
Chore sticks are jumbo popsicle sticks on the chore chart (pockets for each child) and labelled with specific chores that need to be done each week - like "vacuum girls room" or "organize dress up" or "clean playroom floor"...some are gender specific - like only the girls will have to vacuum their room - most are generic.

And just to make this even more longer :)

My themes this year:

One with Nature

(cub scout camp, nature crafts, whittling, pool time)

Head over Heals

(cartwheels and other acrobatics, hair flips/twists/braids, etc)

Framed

(photography basic lessons with my point-and-shoot)

Freedom Fun

(anything 4th of July related, red/white/blue - food, incl making homemade pvc weapons, outdoor movie)

Just beachy

(trip to visit my parents...at the beach)

Please pass the peas

(lessons in the kitchen on basics like homemade bread without machines, etiquette, making aprons, finishing in a dinner party to have a game about the Word of Wisdom - our law of health - and practice good manners...this passes off a requirement in my kids' booklets to earn their Faith in God award at church)

a stitch in time

(quilting, family history field trip)

Game on!

(classic indoor/outdoor games - marbles, checkers, hopskotch, cards, etc)

A day in the life of a kid

(good old kid stuff - learning to blow bubble gum, sleepovers, water fun, etc...last fling)

Reliving the memories

(scrapbooking, journals, video, maybe even a game of charades based on things we did...etc.)

Not all of those ideas will happen I'm sure and I may think of more...but that's why I didn't ink them on cardstock on use permanent scrapbook tape this year for my calendar! :)