Family Birthday Board

I've been wanting to make a Birthday Board for a while now.  And not for me, but for my amazing Mom who has 17 grand-kids and she ain't done yet!  This isn't an original concept and there are tons of examples all over Pinterest.  But I wanted mine to be a little bit different, and I'm not just saying that because I don't have a Silhouette Machine (yet!).  Just something a little more personalized for her.  By the way, did you know Mother's Day is just 9 days away?  =)

I grabbed a piece of scrap wood from SupperHubbies shop roughly 1 1/2' by 1'.  I painted it a nice ivory color so that my chalk-painted pegs and 'family' wood cut-out would really pop.  I also had a bulldog clip but forgot to put it in the photo!

I picked up most of the supplies from Michael's:  A set of Thickers Stickers for the letters of the months, a couple fun burlap flowers and a scrapbook ornament.  I had Modge Podge on hand (don't you?) and picked up of a bunch of Martha Stewart Tags from Staples to write the names & birthdays on.  I use these same tags to label my Sweet Almond Butter & Oatmeal Soap (another great Mother's Day gift idea!)

Here's where things went a little haywire so let me fill you in on the back story.  I asked SuperHubbie to drill the 'Month Holes' for the wooden pegs.  You see he has this hugely awesome drill press machine and I wanted this board to be just perfect.  Back to the tutorial...

The process is pretty straight forward.  Push in the pegs or use a wooden mallet if necessary.  In a couple spots the paint rubbed off so I just touched it up with a Sharpie.

With 17 grand-kids poppin' over to Grandmas house at any given time I wanted to make sure her Birthday Board was as durable as possible.  So before I added the stickers for the months I put down a nice coat of Modge Podge.

J for January, F for February...and so on until I got to O for October.  It was at that moment I realized there was only one peg left.  November.  Huh?  What happened to December?  Was Christmas cancelled and nobody told me!?!!

Now to make sure 100% of the blame goes onto SuperHubbie I painted way more then 12 pegs because that's just how I roll.  What if one broke?  What if a kiddo takes one?  What if I dropped one and my St. Bernard ate it?  True story.

Needless to say I've stripped him of his cape which he'll need to earn back in one way or another.  Moving on.

I just decided to go with it because if there is one thing my Mom taught me was to never give up.  So I stuck the N for November sticker a little off center and had my husband drill a 12th hole.  To balance my now unbalanced pegs I placed a pretty paper flower that came with the scrapbook kit on the other end next to January.

More Modge Podge was added on top of the letters just to be extra safe.  I printed out a sweet free printable and glued it to a piece of pretty paper.  This would be a good spot to hang new grand-kids photos or sweet drawings too!

All things being said I think it turned out beautiful.  Imperfectly beautiful.  The best kind there is really.  Now I'm not saying I didn't want to smash it into a million pieces and start it all over at one point.  Or that I won't make a new one when eventually one of the 17 grand-kids and counting does it for me.  But for now, I love it.  And more importantly, so does my Mom.

"The only thing better than having you for MOM is my children

having you for a GRANDMA"