My latest project

I am starting to decorate my office/craft room with a NYC/travel decor.
I have wanted a magnet board to go over my craft table for a while now. I've been looking and the size I wanted are quite expensive! I had an idea in my head of what I was going to do, I just needed to find a magnet board for the right price.

Well, after searching and searching, I decided to make my own. I had a piece of metal that we used for my sons preschool "Alphabet Town" that was blank on the back. He doesn't use it anymore, and this way I didn't have to buy a new magnet board.

I went to Home Depot and bought some wood to make a frame. I came home and cut it to size, and made the 45° angle cuts in the corners with my Miter Saw. I attached the corners with Joint Fasteners.
I then strengthened it with wood glue and filled any gaps with wood putty. (mind you, this was the best corner I used for the photo. ☺) Then I sanded it all smooth, and if there were any uneven joints I sanded them flush.

I then used the same black high gloss paint I used on my kitchen table makeover and painted the whole thing black.
I then attached the metal to the frame using large head screws. I positioned the screws so the heads caught the metal and pressed it into the wood. Hardware was attached to hang it with.

I really liked it painted black. It had a nice crisp clean feel to it.
But my vision was to Modge Podge a pack of "Landscape" flash cards I picked up in the Target $1 bin all over it. Because the black turned out so well, I thought I might want to have a solid black frame later on, so I used hot glue, sticky dots and double sided tape to attach my Landscapes so I could take them off later if I wanted to.
I really like the way it turned out. I started off wanting to bend and cut the flash cards so they were molded to the frame, but I kind of like how they look like post cards now. And I like how they are temporary so I can move the magnet board to another place, take the flash cards off and have a nice black frame around it.

Cost:
Magnet board-Free (I originally paid $7 for it from my sons preschool)
Wood for frame-$1.67 each. I used 2.
Joint fasteners-$1.40 for a box of 30. I kept bending them, I was grateful they came with 30 pieces!
Wood glue and putty-Free, I already had them. They are about $2 a bottle
Paint-Free, left over from another project. I could have used spray paint, that would have been cheap
Hardware-$3.00 I bought a packet of 20 different pieces for future use.
Landmark Flash Cards- $1.00

So total cost for me was about $7.00. From scratch, this would have cost about $20.00.

I have a ton of joint fasteners left if anyone wants to do a project! :)