Contribution Chart

Organizing your kid's school craziness part 2 of 3.

I love organization, that's my type A personality and OCD kicking in. However I LOVE things to be cute and crafty. I had a Melissa and Doug contribution (chore) chart from a great craigslist find a couple years back but it just didn't excite me and it wasn't specific enough.

After creating our weekly planner inspired from Controlling My Chaos my friend Abbey and I decided to create a contribution chart to go along with it.

I know I hate long winded blog posts too.  I tried to keep it short but I wanted to give you detailed steps so I give you my apologies in advance.

Tyler is only 2 so his list is quite short right now =)

My husband and I prefer to call it contributions instead of chores. You can use whatever terminology fits your family.

Once again you head to Michael's with your 40% off coupon in hand.  Use it to buy another already made magnetic board, some patterned paper that calls your name.  I'm sure I'm not the only one paper sings to am I?  Two colors of coordinating cardstock, ribbon, mod podge, and magnets if you need them.

These measurements are for a 22 x 35 magnetic board.

Grab your patterned paper.  I used a pattern for each child with a solid color in the center and my friend chose to use the same pattern for the entire top.  She needed two sheets of paper to have the pattern line up correctly.

For the top section cut two strips 12" wide by 3 1/2" in length.  Cut another piece 8 1/4" wide by 3 1/2" long.  Again keep in mind if it has a uniform pattern to keep that lined up.

For the center section you will need three sheets of a solid coordinating cardstock.  Use two full 12 x 12 sheets and one sheet cut 8 1/4" wide and keep at 12" long.

For the bottom section you will need one sheet of another coordinating color of cardstock.  Cut two pieces 12" wide by 3 1/2" long and cut another piece 8 1/4" wide by 3 1/2" long.

You will also need some coordinating ribbon to separate your columns and hide your seems.  You may want to buy extra cardstock for those mishaps creative touches. Not that you'll ever have one of those.

Lightly sand your surface where you will mod podge.

Now comes the fun part of putting it together.

Try a dry run first, making sure all your pieces fit like they should.  If you need to trim something do it now. Start with the very top.  Use a foam brush to put a thin layer of mod podge across just the area you are working with. Slowly place your paper along the top from left to right.

Be CERTAIN you are placing the right size paper down in the right direction. Don't ask how I know that you will stomp your foot a little, maybe a small tear will form, and then you'll be forced to use that spare paper I suggested you get "just in case".  I used my pampered chef scraper that came with my bakeware to carefully smooth the paper < I  still love that little thing>. For those lefties in the world it works just as good moving from right to left =)

Place another thin layer of mod podge in the section under the patterned paper and place your 12x12 piece of cardstock on the left, the cut piece in the center, and another 12x12 sheet on the right.

Now to the bottom section.  Another thin layer of mod podge and move from left to right.

Now give a nice thin coat of mod podge to your entire board,smoothing as you go if necessary. Wait at least 15 minutes between coats, I did about 3 coats.

Now for more waiting for mod podge to dry.  Back to your labels.  Yes more mumblings of frustration however less this time because I just used the template I'd prepared for my weekly planner.  I used the same color chart as I did with my weekly planner to match the colors to the cardstock.  I used a different color for each kid.

Print on cardstock and laminate.

Cut them out with a paper trimmer and add a magnet to the backs.

For the titles (names, Contributions Done, and I did it dots) I used my KNK (Klic-N-Kut) again.  If you don't own one of these machines you can always use a sticker alphabet or chipboard letters.  I inked the edges of the outline with a scrapbook ink pad because I thought it needed to be muted a bit.

Laminate a quarter sheet of cardstock of the color you selected for each child. Now use your digital cutter or a small circle punch to make the I did it dots. You'll need 7 for each child.  Put magnets on the backs.  After doing mine I realized I should have used a different color for my daughter's dots and font color because they blend in when sitting in the I did it Dots section.  Oh well that's what makes something homemade and unique!

Now that your board is dry attach your ribbon, I used my ATG tape glider.

Another logo needed to be covered so I used my black sharpie and some paper flowers and a button for the center that I found in my scrapbooking stash for embellishment.

Use your mod podge

I hope I've inspired some of you and didn't confuse you too much.  I'd love to hear constructive feedback and comments!

Working hard on her contributions

Be on the lookout for my last post in the organizing my kid's school craziness series!