Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Memory Board














Craft: Memory Board

Inspiration: I have seen these at stores, but I needed a large one to fill the space of a entertainment center turned bookshelf. I had a large bullitin board, but didn't want to use push pins in my kid's rooms (choking/poke your sibling's eye out hazard) The memory board needed to go in the space where a tv should be. It also needed to be easy for my 3 year old to use. I wanted to use it to post art, pictures, postcards, etc. I had seen one at one of my very crafty friends house (Thanks Laurie), that she had for her son. What I liked about hers, was that instead of ribbon, she had used elastic bands to hold items in place. Easy and genius! I thought it would be neat to use buttons to hold the elastic in a square pattern. However, after I finished, I realized that by connecting ALL of the elastic together, if you pulled on it, everything it was holding would fall out! Therefore, the elastic band thing was for not. To fix this, I used clothes pins to hold the items. I am still very happy with the final result, so I decided to make one for my son's room as well.

To make yours like mine:
Bullitin board
Batting
Fabric
Elastic
Buttons (four holes)
Clothes pins
Staple gun and staples

Steps:
1. Lay fabric and batting down, smooth out any lumps.
2. Place bullitin board on top.
3. Staple fabric and batting, making sure to pull it tight.
4. Cut elastic into strips.
5. Staple top side of board with strips.
6. Thread buttons onto elastic.
7. Pull elastic tight and staple to bottom of board.
8. Staple right side of board with strips.
9. Thread buttons onto elastic.
10. Pull elastic tight and staple to left of board.
11. You are done! If board is to be hung on wall, add wall hooks that came with board.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

A year of crafting

I am not a crafty person, but I like to make things. This blog will document my year of crafting. Maybe you will get some good ideas for your crafts... or maybe you will get some good ideas of what NOT to do. Either way, I hope you enjoy a year of crafting with me.