How to Make a Magnet Board with Cut it Out Frames

I love my stainless steel fridge, but unfortunately it is all covered in scratches from my kids moving magnets around. It bugs the heck out of me, and I have been wanting to cover them up for ages. When I was sent some Cut It Out Frames to review, I knew it was time to start making my fridge pretty again! We needed a family home evening board, so I designed one to match my decor. You can put anything you want in yours; the frame is so pretty it could even stand alone!


I needed the board to be magnetic so we can move our initials around. It is super simple to make, and I will show you how! Magnetic boards are super handy for hanging artwork, organizing invitations, reminders, etc. If you don’t need one on the fridge, you can hang it anywhere you need a little bit of pretty organization. I’m already planning on making one for my craft room. It can use all the organization tricks it can get!

How to Make a Magnet Board (or Magnetic Family Home Evening Board)
with Cut it Out Frames

Supplies:
~Cut it Out Frame of your choice (I used the 8×10″ Balboa)
~Spray Paint Primer (optional)
~Fine grit sandpaper (300-400), optional
~Spray Paint in color of your choice
~Piece of sheet metal to fit inside your frame
~Kitchen shears
~Heavy duty magnets if you want to hang your frame on the fridge

-For a FHE board, you will need the Free Printable, Scrabble tiles and self adhesive magnet tape.

Instructions:
Prep your frame by spraying it with primer. I used Kilz brand spray paint primer. This step is optional, but I find that MDF soaks up quite a bit of spray paint, so the primer eliminates that. After the primer dries, I like to sand it down a little with very fine sandpaper for a smoother finish.
Now you can paint your frame any color you like. Isn’t it already gorgeous?
To make your frame a magnet board, cut a piece of sheet metal to fit the back opening of your frame. You can just leave the metal showing, or put something in front of it like I did.
Stick both of them in the frame, and you have a beautiful magnet board. Or family home evening board if you copied me. 🙂
To make the names for a family home evening board, choose a scrabble tile for each member of your family. We don’t have any names that start with the same letter, so it worked great for us. If all your names start with “J”, you might be in trouble. Attach a piece of magnetic tape to the back of each tile, and you’re good to go.
Here’s the part where you have to do what I say, and not what I did. I had a bunch of round magnets on hand, and I thought they would be strong enough to hold my frame on the fridge. I was wrong. But I used heavy duty glue, so I couldn’t get them off. I ended up having to buy some heavy duty magnets. But they were thicker than the round ones, so I couldn’t use them together. Arrgg! I ended up using two heavy duty magnet as a ledge for the back of the frame.
They prevent the frame from sliding down, and the round magnets on the side hold it in place. It works, but it would have been much simpler if I had just used the right magnets in the first place. Don’t be like me– BUY THE HEAVY DUTY MAGNETS!! Three would probably be good enough, but I’d use four on the corner because I like things to be even. 🙂
Here it is all ready to go. It looks so pretty in my kitchen, and most of the scratches on the fridge are covered up. Score!

If you’d like to make the Family Home Evening Board, just click the link below to download.

Family Home Evening Board Printable

Disclaimer: I was provided pretty Cut It Out Frames for this post, but I was not compensated.