Menu Sign

I finally made it... after sitting on the project for 6 months because of moves, settling and other projects, I finally made the menu sign.  I got the inspiration to make one of these after reading A Content Housewife's Blog on how she decided to make a dry-erase board after an impasse with her husband on a chalkboard painted wall.   I thought it was a great idea!!!  I wanted something that was mobile, could be packed up and doesn't have to be painted over during the next 10 years while we move for Keith's career in the military.

Our weeks are so busy with work, school, volunteer commitments and so on... who isn't busy right???...With our Veg-head diet~lifestyle, it really places us in a position where we need to plan meals for the week.  There isn't the fast food McDonald's option.  Taco Bell grows old when your variation is the same form of beans on either crunchy or soft.  It is important to know what meal is up in the batter box for each day of the week.  Together, we plan our meals for the week.  It never fails that by Thursday, I am hunting down the piece of paper and staring into the fridge wondering what exactly we were suppose to make with the green peppers and bag of spinach... it could of have been a variety of options!  Sometimes, I am hunting for the piece of paper that was actually the shopping list.... and I realize it was left in the cart, washed in Sunday's laundry or just thrown away and the list of "why I lost it" continues for miles...

Other than that and all of the reasons behind "needing" a permanent MENU board....  I just really needed wanted something for this nook in the kitchen... it screams "HEY wide open space here...  give me something, anything!"  The framed pics on the adjacent wall along with my inability to hang things straight, declared the need for a circular frame.  

So - on to the MENU board I was inspired to make.  The end result is the same as far as notion but the style is different.  The notion must have somehow twisted and turned in my head over the last 6 months... it has a little bit of our household flavoring.

Supplies: 

• 1 large frame
• 4 wooden letters to spell MENU
• Craft Glue, hot glue
• Cricut fonts or stickers
• scrapbook paper or fabric

Iron the fabric.  Using craft glue, make a bead line of glue around the circumference or perimeter of the frame back.  I would not put glue in the middle section of the frame because it would likely create bubbling, crusting of the glue and make the fabric appear awkward in the frame.  If you are using scrap book paper or card stock, you could just use a tape runner adhesive.  You could also use spray adhesive... that would probably be better than the liquid glue but I didn't have any on hand.  

After you apply the glue, turn it upside down to line up the fabric marks (if necessary) and adhere the fabric to the backside of the frame. 

While the glue is drying, begin painting your wooden letters.  I painted them black with craft paint.  I did not add a clear finish but now that it is hanging up on the wall and dried, I kind of wish I did.  I think it will help with cleaning and dust issues in the future.

Now that your glue has dried, trim off an excess fabric or paper.  Gotta love the 1980 beach towel that my husband brought into the marriage!  Maybe I should have accidently painted on it... LOL

Onto making the letters, you could use stickers and I thought about going the sticker route.  Originally, I wanted all different fonts so I decided to use various Cricut cartridges.  However, I ended up using one font, all the same size.  My Cricut cartridge of choice was the Alphalicious cartridge.  I thought the font was funky enough but nice enough to offset the large MENU lettering.  I chose a lightly patterned gray paper and after cutting it out, didn't like it so went with a swirly -whirly (there is a formal name for that swirl - i know it... ) paper and cut them at 1.5" using the shadow feature to give them a little more pop.

People claim that crafting, like any art form is an organic process.  You have one plan and it keeps changing and changing ...sometimes due to taste preference, color matching issues and sometimes due to sheer stupidity and lack of measuring!  In this case, it was totally the latter... I completely misjudged the size of my 1.5" letters  and the large 3" MENU letters on the oval frame.

So - I went with plan B... of which quickly became MENU lettering as a side bar on the left hand side with the days of the week running top to bottom.  Much much better.. not so much of a squeeze this way and it looks nice with a left side title.

After I lined up the letters, I grabbed the ruler ( that is right... "I now grab the ruler"..I know you are thinking it).  I used the ruler as a guide to line up my days of the week before gluing.

Cricut and Martha Stewart and a few other million companies sell a small fine point glue pen.  You should definitely use that when working with Cricut cut outs ---- it is so worth it!  Mine ran out - so I used my "fine tip" glue and started adding the glue on the underside of the letter and began positioning.

It wasn't until after I had all of the first letters in place that I realized that my MENU week was planning for two Sundays....   how many of you caught that 4 pictures ago?  Maybe I could have gone back to plan A with MENU on top if I wasn't planning for an extra Sunday in there... LOL  sometimes all you can do is laugh at yourself... or throw the project!

I took off the extra S for "Second Sunday" of the week and began gluing the rest of the letters.  It was coming together nicely.

I placed my glass top with the MENU letters over it to see if I had done any other damage to my project and all was good to move forward!  I felt like it was missing something so I cut out two little birds using the "House Decor" cartridge from Cricut.  I added one bird to the top and one to the bottom of the MENU title area.  I decided to go back and add a little aqua element under the menu sign by chopping up a piece of cardstock with aqua pattern and fancy cutting scissors.

I liked the way it was turning out so I went ahead and added my wooden letters.  I attached them by using the craft glue.

  The end result was a nice menu sign that my Keith complimented me on the next morning.  I told him I added the birds to improve the "likability" factor for him. He is a sucker for birds and ducks (hence Perry my mascot up there).