Sunday, January 9, 2011

DIY Memo Boards

One thing we have been wanting to do is get a memo board where we can display pictures, cards, etc. rather than keep them cluttering up our fridge. We wanted a fairly large one to put in our hallway, so it needed to be kind of long. We couldn't find one that was the right side, so when I found this tutorial on Billie Monster I knew I wanted to try it.
Billie Monster

Not being very crafty by nature, this was the perfect project for me. I was able to complete most of it in an afternoon. In fact the hardest part was figuring out how to hang it. So, here is what I used to make it:


We got some batting, fabric, ribbon, buttons, a bulletin board and a staple gun. I basically just covered the bulletin board in the batting and fabric and stapled it to the back. Then I laid out the ribbon and stapled it to the back of the board too. I finished it off by sewing buttons where the ribbons intersected. Here is the finished product:


Here it is hung up on the wall with all the pictures on it:


 And here is our fridge looking nice and clean without all of the pictures and cards all over it:


I didn't put buttons at every spot where the ribbons crossed because they were so closely spaced together and if I had put a button at every intersection it would be hard to fit pictures in. I think if I did it again, I would space the ribbon further apart and put a button at every intersection.  My friend Sarah has been in town (she is awesome) and we decided to make her one, and so for hers I learned from the mistakes on mine and we spread the ribbons out and put buttons at each point where they crossed. We also hot glued the buttons instead of sewing them. It seems like that was easier and worked just as well. We also used 2 different colors of ribbon, which I think looks kind of fun. Here is how it turned out:



Also, for Sarah's we pinned the ribbon to where we want it before we stapled it, which I think was a good idea, that way you could change the spacing etc. to see what you like. I was having fun taking pictures with my new camera.  Here is a fun picture I took of the pins.



So there you have it. A couple of memo boards. I think they turned out well and were really easy to make. They weren't that cheap because I had to buy the cork board, but I love how it turned out and that it was the exact size that I wanted, with the fabric I wanted. You should definitely give it a shot!

4 comments:

Kari said...

These look awesome! I love your fabric choice - where did you end up getting it??? Great job!

chloƫ. said...

That looks fantastic! Great job! I love pretty memo boards like that :) Would be great for little one's creations one day :)

Anonymous said...

very nice! i need to make one and de-clutter my fridge too! i'll definitely book this as a future project! :)

domecfam said...

that's really cute Anne! I always thought they were hard to make but you make it look easy!