DIY Mitzvah Chart with Guest Blogger Rita from DesignMegilla.com!

Rita Milos Brownstein is the author of two books, Jewish Holiday Style and Jewish Weddings(Simon & Schuster) and speaks at events showing women how to beautify the Jewish holidays. She has worked as an art director for several well-known publications such as House Beautiful and Good Housekeeping magazine. She currently has a home decorating business in Connecticut and blogs at designmegillah.com. She divides her time working and playing with her very cute grandchildren Moussia and Yosef.

Do It Yourself: Mitzvah Chart! 

Hi everyone! My name is Rita—you can usually find me blogging over at designmegillah.com but today I am thrilled to be a guest blogger for LadyMama.

I would like to share a project I did for my grandchildren—a Mitzvah Chart. This chart lists the mitzvahs that the children are expected to do each day of the week. In what has become a nightly ritual that the children look forward to with excitement, my daughter Ariel reviews with them the mitzvahs they did that day. If they did the mitzvah, they get to put a magnetic button on the spot for that particular mitzvah. 

They love it when they fill an entire day with buttons, and of course, children LOVE magnets!

I designed this chart for young pre-schoolers who don’t know how to read, but if you have older kids you can replace the pictures with words. Add more or less for your needs.

Here are the supplies I purchased:

1. Colored scrapbooking paper (Michaels Crafts)

2. Package of colorful buttons (Michaels Crafts)

3. Magnetic Board (Michaels Crafts)

4. Both round and strip style magnets (Staples)

5. Large letter stickers (BoBunny Supersized Alphabet Stickers)

6. Press-On 1” white vinyl letters—Helvetica (Staples)

7. Martha Stewart Crafts 1 ½” circle craft punch (Michaels Crafts)

8. Decorative ribbon (Michael’s crafts) (optional)

Before sticking on the large letters that read “Mitzvah Chart” I taped a piece of green painters tape to use for a guide and get a nice straight line. If you don’t have painters tape you can use masking tape or you can draw a light pencil line with a ruler.

Next, I cut out my circles for the days of the week using my circle craft punch. Again, if you don’t have a circle punch you can cut squares out of the colored paper with scissors.

After I decided out how much space I needed for each day, I drew vertical lines with a sharpie marker.

The painters tape helped to keep the tops of the lines straight.

Here is a PDF of some icons to use if you are doing a chart for toddlers. You can add your own, too.

After mounting the icons on colored paper, I cut the magnet tape and applied to the back of the icons. This way, they can be changed as needed. I also added the white vinyl letters to the colored circles for the days of the week.

The buttons got a drop of glue from a glue gun to stick onto the round magnets. If you don’t have a glue gun, I suggest using goop glue, found at most hardware stores.

As a finishing touch, I glued a decorative ribbon around the board to create a bit of a frame.

Please visit me at www.designmegillah.com for more great ideas!