DIY Picture Board

I'm sure you all have seen these in the store but I decided to make my own to give it a more personal touch.  I did this for a room I am redoing for a young girl.  I already had the fabric for pillows I made for the room and some leftover batting from another project so all I had to purchase was a cork board.  The fabric was actually a remnant from the fabric store and it was 50% off, that's my kind of deal.  Remnants are great for projects like this because it's usually much cheaper and you don't need very much.  I chose to cover a premade cork board ($6 at Target) because it was easy and inexpensive but you could use whatever you want.  Another positive about using the cork board is you can not only slide pictures, cards, etc. under the ribbons but you can also use thumbtacks to hang things on the board.  You could use 1/4 inch plywood instead and batting and make the board any size or shape you want.  Now this has gotten my creative juices flowing, I think the next one I make will have a different shape to it, maybe something kind of ornate?!?  Another neat detail you could add would be covered buttons where the lines intersect.  All you would need to do is drill a hole in the back where you want the button to be, cover the buttons with a coordinating fabric (or use any kind of buttons you want, you could even use all different types of buttons for a more eclectic look) and then thread the buttons through front side where you want them to be, and staple the thread on the back side.  I thought about doing this but ran out of time (and energy :)  I think it would be neat to make this for an office or family room and make it big enough to cover a large portion of the wall.  Then you could use it to hang pictures or cards or anything you want on it.  We have a small one hanging on the inside of our pantry door for coupons, cards, lists, etc.  Here are the steps I followed.

Supplies: Cork board, batting, material, ribbon, staple gun, staples

Step 1:  Cut fabric and batting to size, leaving enough excess to go around the corners

Step 2:  Cover the board and staple fabric and batting on the back side of the board, making sure that fabric is pulled taut and the pattern of the fabric is where you want it to be.

Step 3: Apply the ribbon, stapling it to the back as you go, in any pattern you want.

Then you could drill the holes and add the buttons at this point if you wanted to or you can just leave it like this.  The corkboard I bought came with metal hooks that you attach to the back to hang it with, but you could use whatever you want.  You could always just buy one of these from the store, but where is the fun in that, right?!?!  And this gives you a chance to be creative and custom design it just the way you want!  Now it's time to bake some goodies for Thanksgiving!