Joshua's Alphabet Board

I was recently introduced to Pinterest and fell in love with all the wonderful ideas others had posted. After pinning several things I was determined to actually complete some of these craft and project ideas. So I started with one to help reduce some of the clutter in my home. While pregnant I purchased some magnetic letters to put on our fridge for Joshua. Well Josh enjoys the letters on the fridge very much and regularly plays with them leaving a mess like this:

 

So after continuing to step on letters and fish them out from under the fridge we needed to do something different. Then I found an awesome idea on Pinterest. For under $20 the alphabet board was born! To create your own alphabet board you'll need:

- Metal Oil Catch Pan (got mine at Walmart for $10)

- Alphabet Flash Cards $2 (you can print your own too)

- Rubber Cement $1.50

-Command Picture Hanging Strips $4

-Ruler (for good measure)

The pan I bought came with an oily substance on it so I used some cleaner to wipe the pan off first. Then I started laying out my board and making some measurements to see how it would all fit before making things permanent.

Next I broke out the rubber cement; which I have never used before and was a little intimidated by at first but all worked out okay.

Basically I just brushed the rubber cement on the backs of the flash cards and stuck them onto the pan. They slide around a bit at first so you can adjust them so they are straight. Here's what it looked like once I got them all on the pan:

Time to put it up on the wall. Now I chose to use the Command Picture Hanging Strips because I thought it would be easiest. No drilling, nailing, gluing, etc. On the back of the package it tells you how many strips you need and their placement based on the weight of what you are hanging. I didn't know the exact weight of the board so I may have overdone it with the strips but I wanted it to stay on the wall! 

And stick it (got a second set of eyes to help make sure it was straight)...

Now to put all those magnetic letters from the floor and under the fridge on it.

Josh now has a fun place to play with his letters and we can start working on the ABC's and doing some matching! After he learns his letters I can use some more rubber cement and put different flash cards over the ones on there (like letter sounds, etc.). This was such an easy, cheap and quick project to do. Thanks to those who posted it on Pinterest and to Kate at Nic and Kate for first posting the project!

Enjoy! Wishing you many blessings....Leslie.