Dry Erase Freezer Inventory on my $0 budget

I would like to start off by thanking everyone for their amazing support and all of the suggestions regarding our spend free month. My husband and I have actually been enjoying the past 11 days that we agreed to continue this for Lent. Grammy Goodwill is doing this and we loved the idea. So it looks like I am giving up spending for almost 2 months. I don't think I will have enough hot glue sticks to last me....I might be begging my sister to donate some to my cause :)

I want to thank Anne from Unguarded Moments for making the suggestion to make a quick inventory of what is in my freezer. When I started to make the list of everything I had in the freezer, I came up with the idea for my dry erase "Freezer Inventory" board. Thanks Anne!

 

I made a list of the items I typically have in the freezer and left spots for other foods. The list is behind plastic so I can write on it with dry erase marker and easily delete the check mark when the item is removed.
Materials:
9x12 Canvas (from the dollar store)
1 piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper
1 plastic paper sleeve
Ribbon
Hot glue
Mod Podge
Magnets

Method:
I had a canvas that I was using to test out the subway art from a couple of weeks ago. It was in the garbage but I pulled it out and put a coat of cream spray paint on it.

I picked a piece of scrapbook paper that matched the room and that I would like to look at every day. You could use burlap for this project too; I didn't because I have 4 burlap baskets in the bench and thought it would be too much burlap in one room. I know how can someone say that! :)
I attached the paper to the canvas with Mod Podge by only putting Mod Podge on the outer edges. My first attempt bubbled when I painted the entire canvas with it.

I made a 'staple food' list that contained what is typically in the freezer. I made it smaller than 8.5 x 11 so that I saw more of the scrapbook paper.
In order to make the list reusable, I decided to use a plastic sleeve to cover the printer paper. This way I can put check marks for what I have and easily delete it when I remove it from the freezer.  I cut the sleeve to be a little bit bigger than the piece of paper with my list. I warmed up my glue gun and when it was really hot, I ran a bead of glue to seal the two pieces of plastic on the cut side of the sleeve. Start at the bottom of the plastic sleeve and worked up to the top. The hot glue actually melts the plastic and fuses the two pieces together.

Using hot glue, I glued the outer perimeter of the plastic sleeve to the canvas and then covered it with a thin ribbon attached again with hot glue. If you decide to put a ribbon on the top where the opening is, be sure to put a piece of paper between so that the 2 pieces of plastic don't melt together.

I made a ribbon bow and glued it to the top of the canvas.

Using a free magnet (you know the ones that you get in the mailbox from dentists, car dealerships etc...I never throw these out)  cut into 3 strips, I glued them to the bottom and sides of the canvas. I then covered one strong magnet with ribbon and attached it to the bow. This way when the freezer door opens and closes, the canvas will not move or bounce around.

  Tah Dah! What do you think?

I have had a very productive day. I made an inventory of everything in my freezer, created a beautiful board to easily track what goes in and out of the freezer and the most amazing thing I did was defrosted my freezer! I am too embarrassed to show you the before with all the food in it, but I will show you the after :) . Yeah!  Look what I can get accomplished when I can't go shopping.