I thought of making this for my parents so they won’t forget our birthdays and anniversaries. It ended being a lot of work; but, I love the way it turned out. Yes, I read the negative reviews but don’t let that deter you. First, you will need to light sand the surfaces of the plaque and circles and hearts. My plaque had a large gouge across it so I had to sand that out to make it smooth. Do not disassemble the circles and hearts. You can prepare and paint all of them at once by leaving them as one. Next, I took chalk paint and painted everything even the printing on the plaque. Chalk paint all the discs too. This will allow you to write on them without the marker running in the grain of the wood. Chalk paint dries fast and it’s very forgiving. If you make a mistake putting a name on the disc, no problem just repaint it and start over. I put the name and day on front and the year on the back of each disc. I put several coats of chalk paint on the plaque itself because the dark wood kept bleeding through. Once completely dry, I then took a brown colored pencil and colored in the lettering on the plaque. Then, I put a coat of Minwax Water Based Polycrylic in Clear Matte Finish on the plaque. Let it dry for 2 hours and finish w a light sanding block. I ordered gold safety pins and used them as fasteners instead of the rings that came with the project. I want it to be easy for my Mom and Dad to add to it down the road. I used a fine point black Sharpie to print all our names and I prepared a pouch with extra pins, discs, and marker to put include with the gift. These extra supplies I used were all things I had on hand. I’m sure there are other alternatives you can use. It was a work of love. Let’s hope my Mom likes enough to hang it in her house. She’s quite picky. ?It was nice and easy to assembleBut it is a gift for my sisters they loved it.Pros: Super adorable way to remember birthdays and important dates. Works for a farmhouse/rustic decor. Fairly easy to use, minus the small rings which were a little difficult to reshape. I read the reviews prior regarding difficulty in writing on these pieces and/or bleeding ink so I chose use to use my Cricut.Cons: missing 2 round pieces from the set and did not locate them anywhere in the packaging. Rings hard to reshape and a tad difficult to link.It was as advertised and my mother was very happy with it. The only thing that was missing what that it did not come with the small metal attachements that are used to hang up the small wooden piecesI was really looking forward to this. I got markers out and decorated a bunch of birthday tiles and got them all sorted and connected together and ready to connect to the board.Then I ran into issues.The board needs something sturdy to connect them to the tiles. The little metal pieces don't spread that far and go back together easily. If it had some kind of claw easy to open and close ring that attached the tiles, it would probably be a lot better.Absolutely love this product! Was nervous because of the few negative reviews, but ordered it anyways to see for myself. SO happy I did because this is the cutest way to display the important dates I need to keep up with. Easy to assemble. Love projects myself so it was a fun activity to do while I was working to pass the time. The only thing I wished, is that there were more pieces then 50 of each. I did throw away a couple to figure out what pen worked better and to practice my handwriting. But i know I can order more pieces so that’s no issue. I’m so happy with this purchase!Thanks!Very disappointed my item just arrived and it snapped in half