Quick and Easy Bulletin Board

It's time to get organized. Now that we've moved and settled in, it's time for some serious organization. I've been finding green ways to organize, reusing boxes and such. Also make for a very inexpensive organization project.

My first organizational project was a simple bulletin board. You can vary your finished product widely with a little of your own style. Here's the basic instructions and variation ideas.

Materials : Foam Board

Batting (optional)

Fabric, minimum 4 inches linger & wider than your foam board

Scissors

Fabric Spray (optional)

Start with a foam board whatever size you want your finished board to be. I like foam boards because they are light, and easy to cut down if you want a specific sized board. Here you can make your first variation, I elected not to use batting on my board because I was going to use cubicle clips, and wanted to be able to slip them into the foam board itself, but you can add batting for a softer look to your board.

(A)

Pick out your fabric. Anything you have around will do, I used some suiting material left over from a previous project. You'll want the fabric to be a couple inches bigger all around than your board is (A). To use a quilt fat (18" x 22"), you would need a board no bigger than 14" x 18", or to use a half yard (36" x 44"), your board would have to be 32" x 40" or smaller. I chose a board 20" by 30" so a half yard is plenty of fabric, with a little left over. Being that I wanted to make this quick & easy, and knowing the left over fabric wouldn't be big enough for anything, I chose to leave it on.

(B)

For a cleaner looking finished product, iron your fabric before you begin. Lay your board on top of your fabric (if you are using batting, the batting should be sandwiched in the middle). Here I like hot glue, it's fast and easy and holds well. Start in the middle of each of the four sides, and tack down the fabric, being sure to pull it taught (but not so tight you warp the foam board). If you are using a fabric that frays, you may want to fold it under as shown (B) so it doesn't unravel (there's another option for this I'll go over later). Once all four sides are tacked down, work your way around the board with a generous helping of hot glue (I went through 3 sticks), folding and sticking and keeping the fabric taught. You may want to clip your corners (I did due to the thickness of the fabric I chose), and fold them nicely as you glue them down.

Once you have glued it all down, I like to run one more bead of hot glue all around the edges, to make sure it is nice and secure. If you decided not to fold the fabric under, you can run that bead of glue right along the edge of the fabric. It gives it extra hold, and locks it in place to prevent fraying.

When the glue is cool (should only take a minute), flip your board over and you are done. Now, add your own personal creative touches. I added some cubicle wall clips to mine (since this one was for my home office) to hold notes and papers. You can also crisscross ribbons, and secure with buttons, to make a board that you can slip cards and pictures in (great for young girls who want a fun way to display their friends' photos).

Stay tuned, as I'll be doing an organization board for my sewing table soon with pockets and will post those instructions as soon as I figure it out.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

De'Anna