Family Rules Canvas or how I spent my Saturday

I first stumbled across this idea about a year and a half ago at Mary Ostyn's blog, OwlHaven. I thought "What a neat idea! I'd like to do that someday!" And I promptly went on with my life and forgot all about it.

Until about a month ago, when a spurt of creativity descended upon me and I rediscovered this project in the far recesses of my mind. Scary place to be, I tell you.

I bought a 12x24 canvas and painted it green to go with our breakfast area walls. Then I printed off our family rules onto scrapbook paper, using different fonts for each one. I trimmed each piece and inked the edges to create more of a boundary between each one.

After much trial and error, I finally had the rules in the order I wanted them, so I adhered them to the canvas. I've seen some of the family rules canvases that use Mod Podge, but honestly, I'm a Mod Podge freak because I can never get the bubbles out. I simply used a scrapbook tape runner adhesive that I know is really strong.

I was going to seal the entire thing with an acrylic sealer, but the adhesive worked so well that I didn't think a sealer was necessary. If the edges start to come up at some point in the future, I'll seal it, but I like it the way it is.

We hung the canvas in the breakfast nook where it is easily visible.

Here's a view looking down into our den from the breakfast room. We have a coffee theme going on as you can see.

Here are the rules :

Follow God
Obey Dad and Mom
Love One Another
Use Words that Are true, kind, necessary
Forgive Freely
Express Gratitude
Clean Up After Yourself
Use Your Manners
No Whining
Be Helpful

I'm really happy with how this project turned out. The kids have already pointed out the ones that the other needs to work on! Ha ha!