Meal Planner

I'll admit that I can be a bit of a food hoarder.  I love to cruise the aisles of the grocery store, checking out this and that.  I also love a good sale, and can stock up on lots of food, that then never quite makes it to the table.  I'm trying to be better.  So tonight I made a Meal Planning board that we'll hang in our kitchen. Every Sunday we'll plan out a week's worth of meals, and then shop for what we need, but also plan in advance for meals that we'll take directly from the freezer or use up other food we've stockpiled.  Sounds easy, right?  We'll see.  But this board certainly was a fun and easy craft!  My friend Lisa originally emailed me about this project over at Make and Takes.  This is my version.  Let's get started!

First off Supplies:

I bought a 10x10 inch frame at Michael's today.  Frames are 40% off this week, and there's a coupon in this week's ad for an additional 20% off.  This frame was on clearance, and with the additional savings, it cost me about 3 bucks.  I also picked up some stickers for the lettering (I chose "mini black letters" by Sticko), and a sheet of scrapbook paper.  I couldn't decide color what would look best in my kitchen, so I got two, just in case.

The first thing I did was take the mat out of the frame and use it as the guide for cutting my scrapbook paper.  

I then cut out all the letters and laid them out on my paper to get a visual on things.

I started at the bottom, and worked my way up peeling letters and sticking them onto the paper.  If you chose a paper like mine, you can use its pattern as a guide.  Unfortunately I didn't think about that until it was already a little wonky.  Oh well.

Then stick your paper under the glass, reattach the back of the frame, and use a dry erase marker to plan your menu each week.  End result:  Meal Planning Board!  If you change your decor, or move, you can easily paint the frame, switch out the background, etc.  Easy, cute, and practical!