DIY: family rules board

i was at Walmart a few weeks ago when i saw a cute canvas with some family rules listed on it (i pinned it here so you can go take a look). i loved it so much that i wanted to make one for myself, but bigger, and more customized. so i got to work.

i bought a 4'x4' piece of wood, 1/4" thick, at Lowes (the flatter the better-you don't want it all crooked and warped!). then i went and had my dad help me cut it on his table saw. i didn't have a specific measurement in mind-just what i thought looked good-so we ended up with 2 pieces that were 20 and 1/4" x 32", plus i had some leftover that i can use for other projects :)

i took it home and stained it to match our kitchen cabinets, and then the real work began: cutting out and placing the vinyl. this took a week to do, because i did it here and there, during naps or at night when my hubby played basketball. i was soooo happy when i was done with that part!

that would be Nashville that i've been watching during naptime, and starburst wrappers on the side. i used a piece of masking tape as my guide for keeping things straight.

we hung it here, and if you look closely in that image above, you can see the two nail holes we placed to hold it (because my board wasn't totally flat). i'm sure if you had a better/flatter board you could get away with just 1 nail at the top. i am so excited about how it turned out!

now some great news for you: i saved my Silhouette Studio files for cutting this project out, and am sharing them with you so that you can make your own (or make it as a gift-i'm doing that too!). you just need to own or have access to a Silhouette machine to use them.

here are the fonts (in order/top to bottom on the board. most are free if you don't have them, but a few i did buy/have on hand. if you don't want to buy them you can simply use another font):

ck caralyn (fuller - the only one NOT on the template, because you will need to write your own last name!)
arial unicode ms (family rules)
courier new (keep your promises)
cooper black (share)
dasha (think of others before yourself)
minion pro (say i love you)
times new roman (listen to your parents)
gill sans mt (do your best)
halo handletter (say please and thank you)
lato:regular (always tell the truth)
angsana new (laugh at yourself)
budmo (hug often)
ld text me (use kind words)
jacques and gilles (love one another)

the Silhouette Studio files: