1st Time as a Guest Designer!!!!!!

Hello Crafty Bloggers.  My name is Tammy and I’m so excited that Crafty Misfit is giving me this great opportunity to be her guest designer for the day.   My husband and I are recent empty nester and trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.    Actually, we seem to be driving up to see our son quite a bit.  I don’t think we were quite ready to let our only child grow up. 

In between working and watching rugby, it’s time to start thinking about what to give out for Christmas.  We like to give out something homemade that doesn’t cost a lot of money.  We wanted to create something that would work for all ages and combine a pin board and a magnetic board.  Brad had the great idea that it should be dry erase also.  We spent a few days trying to figure out how to create the dry erase part.  There is paint available to create the surface, but the reviews weren’t very good so that was not the answer.  I kept thinking about the overhead projectors with the write on sheets that a geometry teacher used. 

Here is what I started with.  A $0.99 cookie sheet from Wal-Mart, a small batch of cork board, A box of 3M Write-on transparency sheets from the office supply store, push pins, Dry-erase markers, magnets and pattern paper. 

Brad drilled holes in the top lip so that we had a place to tie some ribbon on.  Then I cleaned the pan with soap and water to get rid of dirt and finger prints.   Brad then took some of the push pins and cut off the pin part so they would be flush.

I then took my main pattern paper and cut out the opening I wanted for the dry-erase section.  The glued the paper on top of the transparency.   Then glue the whole thing onto the pan.  If you use a teflon coated pan, you have to sand where the glue will go, or it won't stick. 

We took the push pin tops and glued them with a flower base onto the magnets.  We tried both the really strong magnets and the regular ones.  We discovered that when you glue the flower and pin tops to the really strong magnet and place them on the fridge for later use, the paper separates and the tops fall off, but they work well when they are on-top of a couple of sheets of paper.

Here are some of the finished products. 

The last one is favorite.  We took a lot of time cutting the paper out and matching the cork board to the lines on the paper. 

I want to thank Rebecca again for giving me the chance to be a guest designer for her.  So lets celebrate and give away some blog candy.  I have two A Muse Studio stamp pads to give away.  To be entered into the drawing, stop by The Crafting Misfit's blog and leave a comment.  She will pick the winner at random and have you contact me.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear what you have to say.