{five minute friday} Dry Erase Memo Board

Recently, Jen of Tatertots & Jello invited me create a project using some of the fun products in her new Home + Made line of craft supplies to share with her readers, and now I'm excited to share it with you! And best of all it was a quick and easy five minute project that combines my loves of pretty and functional!

A while back, I finally undertook the major task of getting our pantry organized once and for all! My new pantry organizing system not only makes meal prep quicker, it also makes grocery list-making much easier because I can quickly assess what we have and what we need.

I like to keep a running grocery list throughout the week, but I my old list-making system {a cute notepad clipped to a bulletin board inside the pantry} wasn't working as well as I wanted. I would typically end up rewriting the list - organized by category - before heading out to the grocery store in order to make shopping more efficient and to reduce the chance that I'd miss something on the list.

When I received a box of adorable Home + Made craft supplies from Jen's new collection {talk about happy mail!} I immediately knew that I wanted to create a dry erase memo board for my grocery list! 

SUPPLIES:

• Scrapbook papers: Sweet Mint, Dotted Blossoms, Lovely Lace, and black polka dots from the Home + Made Pebbles paper pack
• Round gold Home + Made stickers
• Gold metal Home + Made label
• 8x10 picture frame
• Paper cutter or scissors
• Double sided tape or glue
• Sharpie
• Screwdriver
• Dry erase marker

TUTORIAL:

I began by taking the back off of the picture frame and removing the paper from the inside. I traced that paper onto a piece of Home + Made black and white polka dot scrapbook paper.

I used my paper cutter to cut the polka dot paper to fit inside the frame {though scissors would work just as well}.

Then I cut 7 rectangles from a variety of double-sided aqua scrapbook papers from the Home + Made collection. I cut one 6.5" x 1.75" rectangle, and six 3" x 1.75" rectangles. I placed the rectangles on the table next to the background paper to decide on the arrangement I liked best, then I applied two strips of double-sided tape to the back of each rectangle and stuck them to the background paper.

I placed the paper into the picture frame, behind the glass, and then replaced the back of the frame.

Glass works perfectly with dry erase markers, but I decided to test out the gold stickers to see if they might also work with a dry erase marker, and sure enough they do! How cool! So I stuck seven gold stickers to the glass, one at the top right corner of each rectangle {note that the paper is below the glass, and the stickers on top of the glass}.

Next, I opened a package of  gold metal labels, and wrote on the included papers. I plan to use this dry erase memo board for making grocery lists, but it would also work well as a calendar or a to do list, so I went ahead and also wrote out labels for these potential future uses.

I then used a screw driver to quickly attach the a metal label to the top center of the picture frame.

This was such a quick and easy project, but I just love the way the dry erase memo board turned out! 

Using a black dry erase marker, I labeled each of the gold stickers with the major categories of food that I shop for{fruits & vegetables, meat, dairy, canned, bakery, frozen, and other}. Then I looked through the pantry and fridge to begin making my organized shopping list. When my grocery list was complete, I simply snapped a photo on my phone, and I was all ready for an organized shopping trip!

The layout of this memo board would also make a perfect weekly calendar! I wanted to test out the calendar option, so I simply wiped away my grocery list and labeled the stickers with the days of the week, using the larger bottom section for a to do list.

I really love the way this calendar looks sitting next to my countertop mail filing system, so I think a second dry erase memo board will be in my near future!

These are just two ways I might use my dry erase memo board, but the options are really endless! It would work just as well for reminders, brainstorming lists, and even love notes!

Let's get social!