Vision Boards – A Great Camp Mom Project!

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards





Like many families right now, we are still hunkering down at home following the rules to avoid contracting Covid-19. Every day I am looking for new activities to keep my three kids – ages 4, 6 and 10 busy and engaged. I read about making Vision Boards and thought my kids and I (because let’s face it – it’s a hell of a lot more fun if it’s actually fun) would enjoy making them. Spoiler – I was right.

What is a Vision Board?

I wasn’t really sure what a vision board was, so like any good person living in 2020, I started googling around. I found out there is a local store called Vision Works NY – whose main mission is to teach people how to make vision boards! I immediately reached out to the owners for some advice.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Board

What supplies do I need to make a Vision Board?

Unlike many people who have jumped into the 21st century, I still get several paper magazine subscriptions. Lucky for me, that was pretty much all I needed to get us started. I began saving them and truth be told – I ended up not needing as many as I expected. Surprisingly, even with making four vision boards, we only used a handful of magazines. In short – this means you can probably make a great vision board with only one or two old issues. I also tried to think outside of the box with the types of magazines I saved. I had great luck finding images and words from my alumni magazine, US Weekly, InStyle, and even the Cambridge Pavers insert from The New York Times (it had awesome background pictures – especially if you like fire pits, pool scenes and sunsets. It was THE perfect vision board magazine for me! Who knew?)!

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Board

Once I had my magazines ready, we sat around the table and wrote out a list of things that makes us happy – to create some inspiration. We also included things we wanted to see/do/accomplish this summer.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Board

Next, I told my kids to close their eyes and I read them the notes from Liz at Vision Works NY. My goal was to set their mood for finding the right images and words for their vision boards. This was a great step and really resonated with them.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Board

Time to start cutting!

Now it was time to get to work. We each took a magazine and started cutting out pictures and words. We cut out big things and we cut out small things. We cut out background images and we cut out random things we liked. My kids were SO into this I could not believe it. I knew my 10-year-old art obsessed daughter would love this, but my six-year-old son went to town! Even my four-year-old was engaged and loving it. Because all three of my kids were into it, I could get into it too! Since that doesn’t happen very often, it truly was a gift!

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards

What is the best background to use?

The next step was figuring out the heavy duty background for our vision boards. My initial thought was to recycle canvases from painting birthday parties, but I soon realized we needed a bigger space. I ended up flattening out the cardboard from cereal boxes and making a custom size for each of us.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards

Covering your vision board background

I took a few pages of “background” and glued them to the cardboard using a regular glue stick. School glue would also work – especially if you use a paint brush. I would just be careful of the amount of school glue you use so the magazine doesn’t pucker. Next, I covered up the words on my background pages with color blocks and images.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards

Let the collaging begin!

I took out all the words and images I cut out and placed them on my vision board. Finally, my last step was to glue them all down one by one. If you’re the kind of person who likes to throw caution to the wind, you can glue as you go. However, I wanted to make sure everything fit first before committing to a location.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards

OMG! A collage of all the things I love makes me happy! #Duh

For me, when I am in the inertia of an art project, I get into the zone and don’t really see it as a whole until I am done and take a step back. This is one of my favorite things about creating art. Once I finished my vision board I took a step back, looked, and I just felt so happy. Now, the funny part is – OF COURSE I’m going to feel happy – I literally just made a board of everything that makes me happy! It SHOULD make me happy! Since I completed my vision board, I can’t stop looking at it and smiling. I don’t know if I made a text book “vision board” or simply a really pretty happiness collage, but I love it either way. I can’t stop looking at it and sending it to my friends!

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards

One day or multi day project

Another thing I loved about this project is it took us a few days to complete. We worked on it for an hour a day over three days. You can absolutely do it in one day for instant gratification, but I wanted something that would take longer. I also didn’t want my kids to get bored and lose interest in the project, so I fed it to them in pieces.

The Mint Chip Mama - Vision Boards

It all comes back to the unsung hero of self-isolation – toilet paper

My kids had so much fun cutting out the most random pictures – including the Geico gecko, Lin-Manuel Miranda, elephants, rainbows, and many, many others. Funny enough – we all cut out the Charmin Ultra Soft bear – without even realizing it. So, in conclusion, no matter what we are doing, five months later, we are still thinking about toilet paper (and clearly very loyal to Charmin!)!

This is a great project to do with kids (or adults!) of any age, it helps recycle things around your house, and it costs nothing! I hope you enjoy making your vision boards as much as we enjoyed making ours. I would love to see them when they are done and share in your vision board happiness!

Published by Stacey Wallenstein

Stacey Gish Wallenstein created The Mint Chip Mama blog in 2013 to share her love and passion for giving children meaningful life experiences and helping moms like her navigate the challenges and benefits of raising children in the New York metropolitan area. Before becoming a full-time mom in 2010, Stacey spent the better part of the preceding decade as a high-end customer relationship management (CRM) professional for some of the most well-known brands in the hotel, luxury, fashion, and beauty industries, such as Harrah’s Entertainment, Chanel and Christian Dior, Inc. She managed customer loyalty programs for thousands of clients around the country and created social media strategies for a span of industries including healthcare services, restaurants, consumer packaged goods, specialty foods, local attractions and retail locations. After 13 wonderful years in Manhattan (the last three of which spent as a city mom), Stacey and her husband moved to Long Island in 2014, where they now reside with their three children (13, 9, and 6). There, she is a founding member of her local Parenting Center, which provides classes and coordinates events designed to educate and inform parents while fostering an environment of support and friendship within the community. Stacey is also an active PTA member ((including a former & current PTA president) as well as a Girl Scout troop leader. Her musings on motherhood, Manhattan, the suburbs, and more can be found here and on Facebook at The Mint Chip Mama. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Stacey has been active in the New York area alumni organization for nearly twenty years, serving as a board member on the school’s University of Michigan Alumni Club of New York City. She also holds a Masters in Psychology from The New School in New York City. Please check out The Mint Chip Mama in the Press: The New York Post, Psychology Today, NY Metro Parents, New York Family, Parents Magazine, Newsday, News 12, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt: Kids, NerdWallet, Big Apple Kids Guide, and more! The Mint Chip Mama was also nominated as "The Best Blog On Long Island" for 2022 & 2023, one of the Top 20 New York Mom Blogs & Websites, and one of the Top 100 Mom Lifestyle Blogs on the web! For more updates, follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Pinterest.

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