2×4 to Birthday Board{{tutorial}}
February 20, 2010 by Alison
Idea for 2×4
Happy Birthday Board
I love when my kids have birthdays. They start their count down at least 6 months in advance! I love celebrating them. Celebrating them for who they are! I usually give my kids ‘friends’ birthday parties every three years and then the other years they get to have family parties. We don’t live close to our family so it’s really just My husband, me and the kids. We start focusing on the birthday child by giving them gifts…not gifts of stuff…gifts of talents. In the past we have wrapped up the sharable talent and given it to the child, but this year I thought it would be fun to display this and they can pick one talent a day starting the week before their birthday. The talents range from my husband giving a foot rub, to a sister doing a chore for the birthday child, or getting to pick their favorite dinner from mom’s cooking{{I’m glad they are fans of cheese sandwiches and tomato soup…I’m a pro!}}. We’ll even give the talent of learning how to bowl {even if it is on the wii }, or the talent of eating ice cream. This all leads to the birth’day’ where presents and cake are a must! I started this birthday board thinking it would be cute for my little boy, but then I saw cute girl paper so…I did both. On one side is the ‘boy’ side and the other is the ‘girl’ side. One board…2 ways to use it:) It was simple and cheap to make!
1. The 2×4 is 24 inches long. I mod podgedpaper on the sides and sanded.
The boy side!
The girl side!
2. Then I drilled holes into the board to hold the wires. Use the drill bit that is the same size as the item going into the hole. I know that is probably a dumb tip because you are smart enough to figure that out but, I learned the hard way and my wires were not standing up…a little slanted.
BTW…Here is the tutorial on how to make wire picture holders
3. Add your vinyl {{font: larger mime, black and 1.3 inches tall, 23 inches long}}
4. Hot glue a clip on to change the birth year of the child. {{remember those clips? They are from the We Love Daddy Post}}
Other Ideas:
1. Put Oreo suckers in the holes!
2. Display pictures of the birthday child!
Click here to find the other ideas to do with a 2×4
What are your family birthday celebration traditions? We LOVE hearing what you do…
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that is great! i am a BIG celebrator of all birthdays (esp MINE!). i am always looking for more ways to celebrate!
{sigh} What else will you think of to do with a chunk of wood?! you exhaust me!
-This is adorable…as usual.
Where did you find those little clips? I can’t find anything like those anywhere.
This is absolutely adorable! And I so love the idea of giving talents! I wish I had seen this idea when my kids were young! Of course- there are always the grandchildren…!
Total cuteness!!
I love it!! What gauge of wire are you using? Did you find it in a hardware store? Now I am going to need more vinyl lettering.
I don’t remember the gauge. I know…I know I should have written it down:) Just choose one that is stiff and you’ll be good to go. Make sure it’s cheap…the cheap works just as good as the spendy kind.
Love this idea. What a great way to spot light you b-day person.
What a great idea! And I love the little ‘presents’ that are written on notes. That is such a great tradition!
I am going to feature this project on my blog!
So cute! Love the idea of the “talents” before the birthday.
I love this idea even for Primary… I’m going to make this and use it at church thanks
I really love this!!! My daughter will be having a birthday in April so I have plenty of time to make one!!! Thanks for the awesome idea!!!
I have a blog for Nursing Home Activity Directors and think this would be a great extra touch for resident birthday’s. will be sharing link on my blog
How Does She…
come up with so many 2×4 IDEAS?
So far they’ve all been so cute. This is just another fantastic idea.
thanks for the inspiration.
This is so cute! I am wondering about the 2 x 4 though. Which way is it laying? is the 4″ side down on the table or does the 4″ side have the letters on it? It looks more like a 4 x 4 in the picture. Where do you store these things?
love this site, btw! thanks for all the great ideas!
It’s a 2×4…I promise:) The 4 inch side is laying flat down and the words are on the 2 in side. I have a tub…one that is long that I picked up from Walmart that they all fit in! Thanks for your kind comments!!!
I LOVES IT…rawkin’ totally rawkin!
Oooh, I really like this. My kids just love the advent calendar countdown, so why not a bday countdown, too? Great idea!
Love this idea! I think you should put the talents in the little balloons and let them pop one each day…unless the kids are scared of popping balloons that is. My kids would love this!
_Tiff
What font are you using? It is super cute!
Larger Mime:)
I just sat down to put this together, and can’t figure out how you did the paper? Scrap book paper is, as you know only 12″, so did you use more than one piece of the striped on yours?
yep! Just make it look like you meant to do it:)
This is my new favorite website! I can’t wait to try some of your ideas. So, I guess I’m going to need to invest in a vinyl cutting machine. Any recommendations?
I love this idea. It is GREAT. I wish I would have seen it sooner as I just had a Wizard of Oz party for my daughter (christyhulsey.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/beatrices-third-birthday-party/). I could have done this and used yellow bricks in the holders!!! love your blog and ideas!
I don’t have any children at home anymore, but this idea is so cute, I just might have to make one anyway. Maybe for my husband! We don’t exchange gifts but I think he would enjoy the talent gifts!
So I just wanted to let you know that I am a long time lurker…and I just LOVE your website! Oh my! I am here most every single day and I have so many of your ideas printed out…and finally took the dive and tried one out. I just wanted to send you the link to mine! Love it SO much! Not perfect, but I adore it!
Thank you so very much for so many wonderful ideas! I can’t wait to make the chore chart the you most recently posted!
Thank you again!
chaoswithsprinkles.blogspot.com/2010/03/bithday-centerpiece-for-girl-or-boy.html
Hey Ladies! I loved this idea so much I knew I had to copy it! I posted a link to your tutorial on my blog. You can check it out here.
http://icopiedthat.blogspot.com/2010/08/year-of-firsts.html
Thanks!
This was great! We had a girls weekend (8 of us)and did crafts all Saturday morning. All the 2X4′s turned out fantastic and they all looked different. Thanks for the great craft idea.
This might be a dumb question, but what is the wire that you use called and where do you get it?
You can get it at any home improvement store. Just ask someone there where the metal wire is. It comes in many different thicknesses so you can feel them and see which one will work best. It needs to be thin enough so you can twist it with pliers and thick enough to stand up on its own.
I wrote yesterday about the wire, and I thought maybe I should share the fact that the link you provided with the tutorial doesn’t work. That’s why I asked. It keeps sending me to an error page. Thanks!!!
I had 2 salespersons helping me look for them at Michaels and no luck at JoAnns either. Are they hidden away in some secret location or just seasonal or regional? I can find the plain silver but no colored ones.