DIY Dry Erase Sign From a Picture Frame

I’ve mentioned before that we’re homeschooling. This is our first year and I love it, but it definitely comes with its challenges. There’s no shortage of ways to fill my time: cleaning, laundry, cooking, cleaning, teaching, reading, cleaning, snuggling, preparing, cleaning and on and on. Sometimes it gets overwhelming. Sometimes I just have trouble remembering what on Earth I’m supposed to be doing – or telling my kids to do. For example: I often fold laundry during quiet time while drinking tea and listening to audiobooks (my absolute favourite is Harry Potter! I’ll put the links for my favourite version of the audiobooks at bottom of this post for if you want to find them on Amazon. I just LOVE them. They’re so well read!). Then I set the kids’ laundry at the end of their beds…and forget about it until I’m putting them to bed. I thought that if I had a sign in my kitchen where I could write things like, “kids put away laundry” then I wouldn’t be shocked when, at the tired end of the day, I remember that their laundry needs to be put away. So I created this gloriously helpful and encouraging (and beautiful!) Picture Frame White Board. My Dad gave me the frame when my parents redecorated their living room, and I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but it was just what I needed! Let’s get crafting and you can tell me what you think!

If you decide to buy anything through the links on my site I get a bit of commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance if you do!

Supplies:

Picture Frame (with glass)
Rubbing alcohol and cotton ball, or Kleenex, to apply it
White paint
Foam paintbrush
Cricut to make adhesive vinyl decal (and supplies to go with it) OR an adhesive vinyl decal

Instructions:

Remove glass from frame and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. Allow the rubbing alcohol to dry.

2. Using a foam paintbrush, paint one side white. I used three coats of paint. Allow paint to dry thoroughly between coats, and after the last coat.

3. Make your decal. I designed my decal on Cricut Design Space and cut it out with my Cricut Explore Air 2. The last thing you need to do to prepare your adhesive vinyl decal is to weed it. I chose to put just the reference of a Bible verse that I thought would be helpful to glance at. I chose James 1: 2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (NASB). I like the idea of just having the reference 1. because I know what the verse is, so I can leave the rest of the sign for things I want to write down and 2. because I think people will ask what the verse is, so it will be something to talk about. And it’s always good to talk about the Scriptures!

4. Apply rubbing alcohol to the other side of the glass where you’re going to adhere your vinyl decal. Let dry.

5. Using transfer tape adhere your decal to the glass.

6. Put it all back together. (Isn’t this exciting???)

7. Hang it up and write on it! The night I finished my sign I began reading “Teaching from Rest” by Sarah McKenzie (she’s also the author of The Read Aloud Family). In it I read the story of a craftsman working on a cathedral. He was carving an ornate bird into the wood of the cathedral. Someone walked by and said, “Why are you carving that bird? It will be in the wall. Nobody will even see it!” And the craftsman replied, “God will see it.” So I wrote “Carve your bird” on my board to remind me that even though no one will see what I do with my kids, and my kids won’t even appreciate it until much later, God is still seeing all the effort I’m putting in; all the potty training failures I’m cleaning, all the lessons I’m teaching, and all the cleaning. All. The. Cleaning! It’s helpful to look at my beautiful sign and remember why I’m doing all of this. And because it’s a dry erase board I can change it all the time. I can use it for encouragement or for practical purposes.

I hope that you try out this simple but wonderful project. It’s only been on my wall for a couple of days and I love it already! If you want to see more wall hangings we’ve made be sure to take a look at Vintage Princess Portrait and Gilt Picture Frame.

If you’re interested in hearing what else Sarah has to say you can get your own copy of Teaching from Rest from Amazon by clicking on Teaching from Rest. If you’d like to give Sarah’s other book a read click on this: The Read Aloud Family.

And here are the links for the Harry Potter audiobooks. I couldn’t give them a higher recommendation. I listen to them all the time. My son listens to the first three all the time (he’s 7, so I think the rest are a bit deep for right now). Here they are in order:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (my personal favourite)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows