Maybe you’ve heard of a prayer board, or maybe you are wondering “What even is a prayer board?”. Either way, I’m glad you are here! A prayer board is a great way to keep your prayer life organized and focused but also helps you literally see the areas of life you want to pray for, daily. Personalizing it makes it fun to use. You obviously don’t need a prayer board to have an incredible prayer life and you may pray throughout the day of course, but I’ve found that for myself, life gets so busy with the kids, business, homeschooling and the solo parent life, that if I don’t slow down to make dedicated time for something, I have a harder time keeping up with it. So I felt like a prayer board was something I definitely needed in my life. Mine hangs in its own corner of the closet. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the movie War Room, but if you have, you know why it’s in my closet. You can put this prayer board anywhere you want. It’s perfect in the space that works for you! You can make it for just yourself or for your whole family to use.

I’m super frugal, especially in the current economy so I am going to tell you exactly how I made a beautiful prayer board for under $25. I bought the few items I needed and I used the paper and card stock I already had.

I knew I wanted a large board because I have a lot of areas of life that I want to focus daily prayer on. I chose a 35″ x 23″ framed cork board that was just $11.49 at Target. That was actually the cheapest place I could find one of that size. I wanted to jazz it up with a bit of color and I grabbed one bottle of matte acrylic paint from the local craft store that I got for $1.09. You can paint right on top of the cork and use it as normal! For the size board I chose, I did use the entire 2 oz bottle of paint.

If you want to keep the board low cost, consider making your own envelopes. That’s what I did! You can hand-cut your own with free envelope templates online, or even use a Cricut, if you have one. I used pieces of card stock that I already had in colors that complimented my board’s fresh coat of paint, and some glue that I also had laying around, and it worked perfect. If you don’t have any card stock already, it’s VERY cheap in the single sheets at the local HoLo. (Hobby Lobby, if you’re wondering “Where?”. That’s what we call it at our house. Haha) On 40% off weeks, you can get it EVEN cheaper. If you’d rather skip the making of the envelopes, use the envelopes you already have or buy some that fit the vision you have for your board! When you are counting up how many envelopes you need, don’t forget the envelope for answered prayers!

I already had clear push pins, but I wanted to splurge on the wooden-style push pins that I found, also at Target, for $5.00 for 150. My kids made their own prayer boards after seeing mine, and even after they made theirs, we still had a ton of push pins left over that we will use with other craft projects.

Now that I had the base of the project, I had to decide how I wanted to decorate it. When I started the project to create my prayer board, I wasn’t going to give a whole lot of thought at first, yet as I started gathering things together, it became something I wanted to be personal and that I wanted to spend the time carefully curating because of the importance of the prayer for each area of my life. If you normally follow my socials for recipes, canning or homesteading tips, you may be wondering where this fits in. Homesteading can look like different things to everyone, but the base of my personal homesteading journey is being a Christian and caring for my family and home, and one way I do that is prayer and a relationship with the Lord.

Back to the crafty stuff! I wanted to label the envelopes and I wanted to add a verse to the bottom of each envelope that meant something to me when I pray for each area/person in my life. You can absolutely handwrite your labels on your envelopes. That adds even more of a personal touch! I used my Cricut because I already had it out, making my envelopes…and I don’t love my handwriting. haha. I then attached the envelopes to scrapbook paper to create a frame-like effect for each one. The “frame” piece is what I have stuck the wooden push pins into, so that I can open and close each envelope without taking it off the board.

Next, I decided on the verses that I wanted to see on my board every day and then I went into Canva and created some verse cards to pin up around the envelopes. Little Bible inspirations for my day. What’s great about your board is that you get to make it personal for you. Add the verses that you love or that mean something to you or that inspires your prayer life. You can handwrite verses or get creative with markers or color pencils if you don’t have a printer! Using what you have makes this project so affordable!

I added pictures of loved ones with white clothes pin tacks (HoLo for $1.99) and a little string of beads with the word “PRAY” made all from what we had in our craft drawer. Even if you aren’t super creative, you can absolutely pull one of these boards together.

I printed out some paper to write my prayers on to put in the envelope, that I had designed. This probably seems a bit “extra”, I will admit, but I own a planner and notebook business, so I just had to print my own lined paper. Blank or lined paper works just as perfectly!

Below is a photo of the little corner of my closet that I put my prayer board in, so that I can do my Bible and prayer time in a space with no distractions. If you happen to have kids, you may feel my need to have it in a place free of distractions. Haha

I hope you have fun making your own prayer board!

— Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Philippians 4:6 —

Happy crafting!

-Monica