Here's how you can make a magnetic board with a real 'Spring' in its step that will be both useful and decorative.

Material:

• a plain, good-sized wood or MDF panel
• texture effect/modeling paste/
• blue, green and white paint
• magnetic paint
• mini mosaic tiles in pastel blue and pastel green/yellow shades

• This paint is black or gray, but may be painted over with paint of another color without this affecting its magnetic properties
• You will need to apply at least 2 coats in order to ensure it creates a strong enough magnetic field: using this paint and magnets, you should be able to attach a piece of paper, but not a postcard
• You may also cover this magnetic paint with black chalkboard paint. So the board has two purposes: for use as a magnetized surface and as a chalkboard.
• You can use a more ecologically-friendly magnetic paint (which is VOC-free, important if you want to stop these kind of fumes being released inside the house!)

If you want to be able to hang up the board, you should attach a fastening to its back before you start to decorate it (you might damage the 3D/raised parts by adding on a fastening or hook after the picture has been finished). Measure and mark out a rectangle inside the board to show where the magnetic part will be. Paint this rectangle with two coats of the magnetic paint. With the texture effect/modeling paste and a simple flat paintbrush, paint on '3D-look' clouds at the top of the picture. Try for this 3D effect at the bottom of the picture as well, especially along the sides.

The top third of the board is painted sky blue (apart from the clouds, which are painted white). The remaining two thirds of the picture is painted green, with the shade of green becoming darker as you go towards the bottom of the picture. Emphasize the 3D effect of the grass by playing with several shades of green applied with a stencil brush.

The little mini-mosaic tiles are glued (in 5s or 6s) all the way round the magnetic paint area, which means they can hide the edges of this area.
Mini-tiles in 2 different shades of light blue are glued to the 'blue' part of the picture, alternating between the two colors.
In the green part, mini green and yellow tiles are used to mark out the magnetic area.

Little metal ''flower'' designs are glued to the edges of the picture, while others are glued to round magnets so they can be used to attach things to the board.

You can also make your own wooden magnets and then paint them. In the l'Atelier bois (the wood workshop), there are plenty of cute, ready-to-paint designs in unfinished wood that should get your creative juices going...

Why not take a look at making a blackboard and the gallery's original paintings Au bonheur des grands et petits