After yesterday's delightful weather (highs of 16 degrees C on 5th March!) I thought it was time to post this blog on how to make a fabric covered noticeboard, after I recently made this floral and blue-ribboned one for Jim's sister's 18th birthday. It would also make a great Mothers' Day present :)
Take one old/new/borrowed (I don't know if you can get blue ones) cork pinboard and some wadding, and cut the wadding so that it is 3 inches bigger than the board all the way round.
I laid the board face down on the wadding and folded the edges round onto the back of the board. I also removed the tiny hooks and pins and kept them safe to re-attach later on.
I cut all four corners off the rectangle of wadding, so that it would fold better and sit more neatly on the back of the board.
Initially I tried using a staple-gun to affix the wadding, but the staples fell out. My very good friend and craft advisor Stephanie Lewis recommended using double sided carpet tape to stick it on. Carpet tape is truly the stickiest and best "attatcher" I have ever come across.
I then cut the fabric I wanted to use to size, again, about 3 inches
larger all round than the board. Next I placed the wadding-covered board
face down on the underside of the fabric and used the corner-cutting
and carpet tape method as above to attach the fabic, making sure it was
pulled quite tight.
Next I cut the ribbon to the different lengths required in order to make
a nice diagonal criss-criss pattern and pinned them in place. I used a
glue gun to stick down each ribbon end to the reverse of the board,
again, ensuring that the ribbons were quite taught.
With the back of the board looking a bit scruffy what with the layers of
wadding, carpet tape, fabric, ribbon and glue, I took an extra large
bit of cardboard, trimmed it down to size and glue-gunned it onto the
back to hide the mess.
Using a hammer I gently re-attached the hooks to the back of the board, ensuring the pattern on the fabric would be hanging the right way up.
Last but not least, I sewed some pearly buttons onto each ribbon crossover, also sewing through the fabric to make the ribbons a bit sturdier to hang things on.
This is an example of another board that my beautfiul mum made me a few years ago.
It's where I keep all the pretty cards and notelets that come through the post :)
