Chore Charts

We recently moved into a beautiful home that was still somewhat of a fixer-upper. So I have had ample opportunities to actually try out some of those projects I've pinned on Pinterest. It's been tons of fun, especially since my husband didn't believe anybody actually did anything they pinned on Pinterest. He has quite impressed with my handiwork. Then I posted my latest on Facebook and offered the templates. So many people wanted them, I thought it would just be easier to post it on here for everyone to access. So I guess...I'm baa-aack! and I'll start "reviewing" some of the projects I've tried. My most recent project was these chore charts. I LOVE how mine turned out! And, of course, I did some tweaking along the way to make the project work better for me.

I started by creating a template to use in Photoshop. Pretty simple. I'll upload links to these files so you can use them too. If you need them in a .jpeg format, you can send me your kids' names and I'll make the name and send it to you. For reference...I used the font "Pharmacy" for the charts, and the font "traveling typewriter" for the actual chores. Both fonts can be downloaded for free at www.dafont.com (I hate it when I love a font and can't use it because I don't know what it is and/or don't have it!) I also added an "Extra Chores" section that was not on the original. This is where my kids can get "money-making chores" instead of just the mundane make your bed kind of stuff.

Here is the link to all the templates. I am totally new to this and trying to use Dropbox for it, so let me know if it doesn't work and you can't actually download the file.

To start, I simply printed the charts 8x10 on cardstock. The original blogger modge podged them on to sheet metal. I tried that and it looked like crap and the magnets still turned the charts black, so I decided to just put them in the frames with the glass and it worked great. I got my frames for a pretty good deal at Michael's. They came to about $4.80 each with the sale and my coupon. Then I went to Lowe's and got 2 sheets of 12"x24" sheet metal and used tin snips to cut them into 4 8x10 pieces that I just stuck in the back of the frame.

The original blogger also said she printed the chores on labels and had a heck of a time doing it. I just decided to do those on cardstock too. Then I took a 1 1/2" circle punch (you are welcome to borrow it if you're near by) and punched them out. Then I modge podged them onto 1 1/2" wood circles that I bought (1 bag at Hobby Lobby and 1 bag at Michael's) and used E-6000 to glue a strong magnet on back and voila! So easy! The most time consuming part was hauling my 3 kids around to get the supplies and making the templates. So hopefully I've saved you some work. It should really only be an hour project or less, and so far, my kids are pretty excited about it. Hopefully it's a chart we'll stick too!