DIY Wooden Celebration Board for Family and Friends

This DIY celebration board is an absolute MUST! With all the crazy busy in our day to day lives, why not take one thing off your mental check list and let this homemade family and friend board ease your mind a bit?!

Anyone else wake up to a new month and start to panic when you suddenly realize you have THREE birthdays coming up within the next two weeks?!! I know this happens to me all year long. Especially in July when my family seems to have back-to-back birthdays and anniversaries!

YIKES! I decided I needed a way to keep track of birthdays so I could be a bit more prepared throughout the year. I put a lot of thought into this since those of my friends that know me, know I wouldn’t be satisfied with just any birthday board. No, it had to fit my house decor! I came across this idea while searching through Pinterest and decided to give it a try. For the most part the supplies were pretty simple and easy to gather.

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Supplies

• Cricut Maker (check…that’s a must for most projects in my house)
• Black Vinyl Paper (I really like the rolls of Matte Black as opposed to the shiny, but you can get your vinyl in square pieces if you prefer)
• Wood slab
• Small Round Wood Slabs
• Metal Ring Connectors for assembling
• Mini Screws
• Stain

Step 1

After collecting all supplies, I got to work! First things, first…. I wanted to stain my board before adding letters. I agonized over what color to go with and ended up deciding on a cherry stain. I love playing around with different types of stain, but for this project I wanted something a bit lighter so my letters would pop! Cherry was the winner. I attached Varathane Premium Wood Stain which my husband and I use often for projects. So many different options!

While my stain was drying, I decided what I wanted on the front of my birthday board. Celebrate! Perfect right?

Step 2

I used my Cricut Design space to write the word “celebrate” in about a hundred different font types before I finally settled on my final choice. Then it was cutting time! Once I placed the vinyl to my board I gave it a light coat of mod-podge so it wouldn’t peel away from the wood. Every time I attach vinyl to wood, I make sure to glue it down with a light coat of mod-podge. Especially when you stain the wood first! For some reason vinyl likes to peel away from stain!

The months of the year needed to be cut out in a much smaller font size in order to fit all 12 months on the bottom of my board! I abbreviated the months to save space and used a ruler to space out my words. Now my board itself was ready. All I had left to do was secure the actual birthdays!

Step 3

Ok, now for the hard part. The tiny circles. I actually purchased these with small holes in the top AND bottom, so they were ready to secure. I had to space out 12 mini screws, one under each month of the year. These are what hold the family member circles. Next, I wrote the names of my family members in permanent marker on my 1-inch circles and attached them by month using my connector rings. This part was a little more tedious, but worth it in the end!

Final Results

Overall, I am pretty pleased with this project! I love the way it turned out and how it adds a bit of rustic character to our entryway wall. Best of all I hardly forget birthdays anymore! Well…as long as I remember to actually LOOK at my birthday board! But hey, it looks great hanging on my wall!