I am a meal planner. I refuse to go grocery shopping without my week’s worth of meals planned out and list made. (It’s either that or wander aimlessly around the grocery store for two hours and then make ten more trips back during the week to get things I forgot.) Once I get the groceries unloaded, I usually forget what I planned for, so I put together this super easy wipe-off menu board to keep track of what’s for dinner each night!
Wipe-Off Menu Board Tutorial
Supplies:
- Picture frame with glass front (I love these 12×12 frames I found at Ben Franklin for only $7!)
- Piece of patterned scrapbook paper to fit in your frame (mine’s also 12×12)
- Optional: Vinyl cut letters for each day of the week (you could always just hand write them)
- Dry-erase marker
1. Put your patterned paper inside the frame. Replace the back. That’s pretty much it. :)
2. If you wanted to stop here, you could hand-write your days of the week on the glass, or use it as a message board / to-do list. I love that these frames can stand or hang on the wall so you can do whatever works best in your space!
3. Use a paper towel or cloth to easily erase dry-erase marker off the glass.
4. If you want to get fancy and go a step further, you can add vinyl lettering for the days of the week. I cut these letters with my Silhouette machine, using Creating Keepsakes “Woodbine Swashes” font. (Try not to notice how crooked “Sunday” is. I didn’t notice until after the picture was taken. Luckily, it’s easy to fix!)
Now everyone in the family knows what’s for dinner each week!
I decided my frame would look better black in my kitchen, so I spray painted it black. The best part about this project is that it is SO easy to change the paper if you decide to change your decor, or if you just get tired of it. So you’ll really use it for years to come!
Little Birdie Secrets are regular contributors to Make and Takes and was born from the crafting obsession of three friends living in the Pacific Northwest. Our mission is to share the wealth of fun projects and helpful tips we find in books, on the Internet, and sometimes in our own imaginations. Come visit us at www. littlebirdiesecrets.com.
Written by Little Birdie Secrets
Little Birdie Secrets are a regular contributor to M&T and was born from the crafting obsession of friends living in the Pacific Northwest. From quilting to card making to baking, they love sharing tips, tricks, and tutorials to make crafting fun and easy. Visit them at www.littlebirdiesecrets.com. Read other posts by Little Birdies
{ 116 comments… read them below or add one }
Great idea! Now, please share the mexican bowtie pasta recipe! LOL :)
Delurking to say what a fun, cheery project! It would make a great gift too! And yeah, the Mexican Bowtie Pasta would go down well in my house too — please share?
I LOVE this! Can you tell me what size the font is for the Menu and the days? Also would love the bow tie recipe!:)
OK, for starters, this is a super-cute project and I will definitely have to make one for our kitchen VERY soon. Wonder if I can find some super-strong magnets to put it on the fridge … that seems like a convenient spot for it.
Next, what is ski-country pasta? I must know. I live in ski country!!
I love everything about this project! Sooooo easy! And so helpful. Thanks for sharing.
And I too would love these recipes. If you have any of them on Little Birdies, share the link in the comments here!!
I love this! I use a plain old white board for my menus but, this one is much prettier. This would even make a great gift! Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely LOVE this! It’s pretty and simple! A requisite for anything crafty I might attempt. Thanks for sharing! I’m thinking of all kinds of places to use this same concept, esp. as reminders for my kids.
I love this! so useful and a great way to stay organized when it comes to meal planning.
I love it! I dream of a day that I will be that organized and not rushing around trying to figure out- What’s for dinner??
I need the recipes to go along with this awesome project.
what an easy, inexpensive, do-able idea! I will be picking up a frame tomorrow (Lord knows I have enough scrapbook paper!
I am not sure if this will help anyone, found this ski country pasta recipe:
http://www.kadusey.com/entrees/files/skicountrypasta.html
Love this idea! I am definitely making one. Maybe two – one for menus and one for a to-do list!
I love this!!! I’m sadly NOT a menu planner, but I long to be. Maybe this could help me to become a better planner!
Thanks for the awesome idea!
pasta recipes- we NEED both pasta recipes after you got us fixating on them!!! PLEASE!!!
Love the idea- great gift for Christmas or housewarming!
What a great and super easy craft! I will definitely put this on my list, along with ‘purchase a house where I can hang cute stuff in the kitchen.’ I love how easy it is to change the paper, you could totally do like a christmas paper or halloween paper at those times of the year!
Tanya, that is the very recipe I use for Ski Country Pasta! It is amazing–my husband’s favorite pasta ever. :)
I am making the Mexican Bowtie Pasta this week, so I’ll snap a photo and blog it on Little Birdie Secrets. It’s delish, too!
As for the font size, I believe menu was 72 (although I’m not 100%), and the days of the week were for sure 58 point in the Woodbine Swashes font.
Thanks for all the love! This was such a fun project and I’m happy to share it with Marie’s awesome readers!
Genius! I love this idea.
This is SUCH a great idea for a dorm room!
Great idea. We’re starting up a craft night, and would love to make this with the ladies!!! Thanks for the inspiration.
That is adorable.
OMG!! THIS IS AWESOME!!! I’m totally gonna share this with my readers!! Thanks for sharing!!
Ben Franklin? I didn’t know they were still in business. I haven’t seen one of those in years! Cute idea!
That is a great project! I’m going to look around and see if I have an extra frame! :)
I LOVE this idea – and it’s so simple – just my style. Thanks for sharing!
LOVE IT!!! Did you know Crayola has dry erase crayons????? Just got some haven’t used them yet, but what a great place to use them!
julie
Love this! What an awesome idea! I can think of sooo many uses for this…. :)
SO cute! SO easy!! Love it! Stopped by from a Facebook post by Leslie at Words of Me Project. This will be a perfect (and simple) project for me to do that will make me feel like I’ve done something creative!!
Love this idea and am very interested in your recipes too, especially the Ski Country Pasta. It sounds totally intriguing, please share with us!
That is such a fantastic idea! My daughter LOVES using my dry erase calendar, I’m going to make her one of these to use in her room! She’ll love it!
This is a great craft idea to get organized, with the freedom to change your backgrounds as needed or wanted. It could be a to-do list or a chore chart or a menu planner. The idea is just all around, wonderful!
Oh, that’s a great idea! I’ll have to try that. :-) Thanks for sharing!
love this idea!! i’ve just made one for myself using fabric and posted about it here-
http://vievesscrapbooking.blogspot.com/2010/08/dinner-anyone.html
thanks for sharing the great idea!!
Awesome project! I got this done during naptime earlier this week…two sleeping babes, an old frame and some cute scrapbook paper and Silhouette fonts, and voila! Everyone who’s been in our kitchen since I put it up has been commenting about how cute it is, and DH loves knowing what’s for dinner! Thanks for sharing, this project is a keeper! (I feel a future hostess gift in the making!)
Brilliant! This is why I like Make and Takes. You take the ordinary and make it extraordinary!
Thanks!
(Maybe this will motivate me to be an organized cook)!?
This is amazing, thanks for sharing!
So simple; so elegant – I want to do one NOW. Oh, wait, no starting a new craft at 9 p.m. Saturday night…
WOW! This is an amazing idea and so easy to do too! Thanks for sharing these fabulous projects!
Alma =)
This is fantastic!!! I’m headed to Michaels and I’m making this. I can even see this as a great gift. Thank you!
Brilliant!!! Thank you, thank you for the share and instructions!!
OhWOW this is amazingly cool and simple! I just stumbled across this and must make it immediately!
Great idea! I think I can actually do this.
But where do you store the marker?
I love this idea! I just whipped mine out with an old picture frame and added some distress to the frame. I used some fun fabric that matches my kitchen and hot glue gunned it to the cardboard and instead of stationary/scrapping paper.. since I didn’t have any on hand.
OMG! I love this idea!!! Thank you so much. So plain and simple yet something I’ve been wondering how the heck to do?.. *hugs* Fantastic idea, fantastic site… I’m in heaven.
Brilliant idea! I loved it so much, I went out today and bought two frames and made two hangers this afternoon. One for my menu plan, and one for a To Do list. They are now hanging on my kitchen wall. Thank you so much! ?
Love this! I am going to make one for my new kitchen!
wow, these are so cute, and so cheap! you never have to worry about it staining it either like on cheap white eraser boards…. what a great idea! thanks! :D
I love this! I can’t wait to make one. Thanks for a great idea. now another reason to convince my hubby I NEED a silhouette machine, ha! I am really trying to be better at planning weekly menus so this might be the motivation I need.
Great idea!
What a fabulous idea! I am totally going to do this as a regular little ‘white board’ for family notes. So pretty-I love damask prints and that yellow paper with the black frame is super cute! :)
This is so clever. These would make great gifts for any family!
I lovE this! Definitely going to be doing this! Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant! I’ve got all the materials…(lots of scrapbooking paper that never seems to get used for scrapbooking!) so this may get done today. Thanks for sharing!
What an amazingly simple idea! I’m going to this tomorrow!!! I love you!
So I did go ahead and make one… thanks again for the idea!
http://erinblakley.blogspot.com/2010/08/project-complete.html
I was in love with my $1 Dry Erase Menu Board until I seen this! Great idea~and beautiful, too!
Love this idea! I’m totally going to do it!
Oh Wow!!!!
This is such a GREAT idea!
I love it! I NEED one!!!!!
You are SOOOOOOOOO amazing to think this up!!!!!
Thanks!!!! :o)
Love, love, LOVE this! I’m going to make one of my own this weekend!
Love it! There are so many great ideas for menu boards now, i don’t know which one to choose! Love this wipe off board, great job :)
Just finished making mine! Thanks so much for the idea.. really gonna help keep the hubby and me on track for our healthy lifestyle change! :)
AMAZING! and yet soooo simple! Love it! Thanks!
What a wonderful idea! I have to make one!
Love it!! I am a meal planner to and continually have a scrap piece of paper on the fridge with the weeks meals. It so often is covered by an over-sized magnet and can’t even be seen. I am definitely going to do this, thank you for the idea:)
I just featured this yesterday on my blog, and I really want your Thai Chicken Salad and Mexican Bowtie Pasta Recipes ;)
I made this the same night I read about it and had to blog about it as well…I linked your page as my inspiration! Here is mine if you are interested in checking it out:
http://chrystal-lewis.blogspot.com/2010/09/wipe-off-weekly-menu-board.html
this is so cool and so easy to make too!!
I love the idea. It looks like something I could actually do! I’m a meal planner like you, and this is perfect. Do you know if I can buy vinyl lettering with the days of the week or do I have to know someone with a letter cutter?
Did anyone ever get the bowtie recipe? If so please share. Thanks
What a great idea!!! Thanks for sharing
Jewish
How cool is this?? My sister and I both have “Grocery Store OCD” — we both make menus for our weeks’ breakfast, lunch AND dinner, then make grocery lists that go by section. I think I’ll make her this for Christmas to celebrate our dedication to over-planning!
Oh my gosh…I saw this several months ago and finally decided to make them as Christmas gifts. I bought the frames today at Michael’s for $4.99 each. Scrapbook paper was on sale for $.25 each and the stickers were on sale for 40% off. One dry erase menu board cost less than $7.00! They came out perfectly! What an awesome idea…..thank you so much!
This is a darling idea. Much better than my wipe off white board :)
Looks great! I love inexpensive crafty ideas that look so elegant! I can’t wait to make myself one and 2 for gifts!
Made one of these for my kitchen wall: http://selacava.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-kitchen-wall.html
Thanks for the idea!
I’m brand new to crafting. Can you help me figure out an alternative to making letters with a machine? 1. What size are the letters? 2. Should I use letters that are stickers or could I use letters that need to be glued? And if so what kind of glue would I need to use for glass?
Thanks:).
You could always use sticker letters and stick them to the paper BEFORE you put it under the glass… that way, wiping off the dry erase markers wouldn’t affect the letters at all and you could use any chipboard letters with whatever regular craft adhesive you’d normally use. They’d be safely under glass and it would be much easier to clean! When I saw this project, I thought it would be cool to embellish the paper edges a bit more before framing it. Plus I’d want to ge the glass clean with a shot of Windex now and again to clear the dry erase marker residue.
This is sweet and simple. It would save all the what’s for dinner questions.
This is a wonderful idea! Looks super easy too!
What a beautiful idea! Thank you for sharing! I’d love it if you’d take a moment to check out my blog, Wilderlace!
this is soooooo inventive! What a keen creative lady you are. Off to the shops tomorrow.
Mincka
I am dieing to know what is the scrapbook paper/where did you get it for this project?
Emma, the paper is from October Afternoon’s Thrift Shop collection, one of my all-time favorite scrapbook lines!
I completely love this idea!!
I made this and it was sooooo easy! I love it! I attached magnets to the back and put it on the fridge. Thanks for the idea <3
What a great idea for something so useful that will also look fantastic hanging in the kitchen. Looks like I’m going shopping to get a few supplies to make this today.
OMG! This is an amzing ideaa!!!
I wanted to get a dry erase board for my tiny apartment kitchen but I didn’t want the ugly classroom kind. This is definitely on my to do list now. Thanks!
Oh I love this so much. I adore my dry erase board but its so… boring. This is JUST what I need!
Ive done similar, but my favorite take on this is when i used my glass windoed door as a messageboard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/killbox/4920464004/in/photostream/
This is the most incredible idea!
Wow…!! This is a great idea…!!! Lovely and soo creative…
I use a dry erase marker, and make notes to
myself on the bathroom mirror.
My best ideas come to me when I am in
there, so this way I write down things I
need to do & have to look at it until I get
it done!
Great craft! Another simple easy craft that the granddaughters and I can enjoy together!!
Amazing and simple idea, I can’t wait to make it!
That is so cute!!
I have 2 or 3 dry erase boards, one of which I use for menu planning, but I would love a “classier” version… :)
Thanks for sharing!
I’m having so much trouble finding letter stickers that would look as good as the silhouette machine letters pictured. Does anyone know if people ever sell customized wording/cutouts on ebay for those of us who don’t have silhouette machines? Thank you!
LOVE this idea!
I think this is such a brilliant idea! I work at an old people’s home and I want to make this so that they know what’s on the menu for the day. So instead of writing the days I’d write starter, main meal, dessert, soup etc! Thank you!
I have been a scrapbooker for ages and when the orders are overwhelming I tend to forget some things. This would be a helpful tool and a must-have in my work area to prevent forgetting things! I hate buying bulletin boards and I dont like whiteboards either. This is perfect not only for me but for any scrapbook hobbyists who needs to be reminded of their to-do list. Thanks for sharing this!
LOVE this!! So cute!! Its a great way to stay orgranized and add a little deco to your kitchen!
This is cute and a fun idea! I linked to it on my blog today to go with a meal planner I made. Thanks for the great tutorial!
http://www.ourlifestyled.com/2011/09/menu-monday-back-to-school.html
Great idea… It looks awesome ..thanks for sharing dear! :)
Love this idea…great for messages…I’m not that organised that I could plan a menu for the week but the occasional message I could hack :)
Soooo in love with this idea, but think my kids will not like you (or me!) so much after I finish making mine, because I will be making one for each child to hang in the hall by their bedrooms so they never “forget” their chores for that day! :)
Great idea!! I love it :) I glued magnets to the back of my frame so I could put it up one the fridge. Also the paper I had picked was too dark so I put some thin tissue paper on top of it and the pattern still showed through but was light enough to write on.
I love this idea. Every year my family does a made gift and I think this is what they are getting!!! <3 Thanks for the idea and I'm officially following your blog <3
Love it.. thanks for your inspiration…Love your blog.. check out my wipe off board too.
http://nancyogengayouree.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/diy-wipe-off-menu-board/
November 24, 2011 3:38 AM
Thanks for showing me your great idea! Just love it!
How would you word a gift tag for a picture frame dry erase board please e-mail me ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.
Hi folks- Which dry erase markers are you using? The traditional black expo markers I bought are not really dark enough. Also, where do you buy these vinyl letters or stickers? I searched online and didn’t find it. I have the frame all set up and ready to go, but I need to go get different paper and markers.
Thanks, Eden
Thanks for sharing!! This is a great idea! :)
Love this – it’s so pretty! Love the paper that was chosen, it really makes the whole project so chic!
xoxo,
Jen
I own a restaurant and was surfing the internet for some unique specials boards and came accross this which not only looks fabulous but also a fraction of the price I would have to spend on something else. Well done you. Will be popping out this afternoon to get this done!! xxx
Was inspired by your message board. Such a great idea, here is my interpretation:
http://eatmakeplay.blogspot.com/2012/01/fabric-message-board.html
Such a great idea! I was inspired by your message board. Here is my interpretation:
http://eatmakeplay.blogspot.com/2012/01/fabric-message-board.html