Monday, November 30, 2009

Make It Myself Monday: Bulletin Board

NOTE:  Cyber Monday!  Giveaway for Mailbox Bliss Custom Design Digital Card ends TONIGHT at 11:00 pm CST.  Click HERE to enter!

I'm going to kick off 'Make It Myself Monday' with a tutorial (and confessional!) on a project I did with/for my daughter Lu Lu Berry last May.  She had been asking for a bulletin board for her to put up all her 'stuff' on, and I couldn't bring myself to nail up a standard drab brown bulletin board in her room.

So we made it fun and went to a store together to pick out a fabric we loved and that matched her room...and then we got ribbons and buttons and hot glue gun sticks and...well...you get the idea.  We went the frugal/conservationist route and used a frame that we already had, but weren't using around the house.  I think the glass had already broken out of it, which made it all the better of a choice! 


To customize the cork board size, I found cork tiles at Michael's Craft Store and was able to cut and hot glue gun them to size on the particle board that fit into the frame, so it would be a perfect fit.  That worked well, but I didn't think in advance about how the method that I used to hot glue gun the cork tiles on would affect my ability to neatly wrap the fabric around the particle board.  To get the fabric to fit tight on the cork in the front, I had to pull the fabric in awkward directions, cut it in strange ways to get it to fit into the frame (I also hadn't planned for those little metal clips that go into the frame to make it hold tight) and so I hot glue gunned the heck out of it to make it stay.



Thankfully the only one seeing the back of the frame is the wall...and now all of you!!!

After the fabric was properly affixed, I created a criss-cross pattern across the fabric with the ribbon.  Again, I didn't plan this out entirely, nor did I use rulers or chalk lines to make sure it all work.  I just guessed and eyeballed it (which is why if you look closely you'll see a few lines that are a teensy bit crooked.  Once the ribbon was on (hot glued, of course), I hot glued a button in each of the spots the ribbon crossed and made an 'x'.  



In the end the bulletin board turned out GREAT, and has served a wonderful function for Lu Lu Berry.  She switches out the pictures and mementos on it every other week it seems...it is like a visual diary for her...and so far all that hot glue gun work on the back has held up well!




 
Now for my NEXT "Make It Myself Monday", I would like to use the extra fabric from making the bulletin board to make a pillow for Lu Lu Berry's bed that matches the bulletin board.

I'd like to do a pillow like THIS ONE at Tiny Decor blog.  I've selected that one because it is simple and doesn't look too intimidating to me!  Plus, my tendency (as you discovered with the bulletin board) is to often forge ahead with a craft idea without planning it out.  Then I find myself without the right supplies (or enough of them), or with an unexpected 'snag' (like forgetting to leave room for frame clips on the bulletin board project!).  Tiny Decor gives a pretty simple but understandable tutorial...I'm excited to give it a try!

I will take pictures and will recap the entire project on the 7th (assuming I finish it by then!).
Shhh...if you know her, don't tell Lu Lu Berry...this is going to be one of her Christmas presents!


NOW...I would LOVE IT if you are a blogger and a crafty pants (or wannabe crafty pants) and want to join in with my "Make It Myself Monday" posts.  Within a few weeks we'll get a MckLinky going for it, but for now, if you write a "Make It Myself Monday" post, leave a comment with a link to your blog - I'd like to highlight it!

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