Tutorial: Easy Covered Bulletin Board

Wowza, this tutorial has been in my to-do list for far too long…. And while it takes very little time to actually make the thing and take the photos, there’s all this work with getting the pics ready for the blog, and then the actual explaining, etc…. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I’m a SLACKER, but I’m finally repenting today.

Tutorial time! :)

I wanted to make a covered bulletin board for my friend for Christmas… I’d heard of them, seen them… but when it came time to actually MAKE one, I looked for some help online and didn’t find EXACTLY what I was looking for… So I made it up as I went along. And I kept the process SUPER simple. Here ya go:

EASY COVERED BULLETIN BOARD

Materials:

cork tiles

(from your craft store. I chose medium thickness. You could go with the thickest ones, but don’t do the paper-thin ones)

Heavyweight fabric

Staple gun/Staples

heavyweight paper, 12x12”

FOR COVERED THUMBTACKS:

“Buttons to Cover”- Wedding Gown Size (size 20, 1/2")

Standard metal thumbtacks

midweight fabric scraps

glue

STEPS:

1. Begin with your cork tiles. I used two, and didn’t do anything to stick them together, since the fabric, etc., will hold them together eventually. You could be more thorough and glue them together, I suppose.

2. Cut a square of fabric about 2-3 inches bigger on all sides. (Noah wanted to demonstrate this step for you.)

3. Get your staple gun ready…

4. Start stapling two opposite sites. For the first side, staple it three or four time carefully and evenly. Then take the opposite side and pull the middle taut—as taut as you can without causing the cork to bend. Staple one staple in the center to hold this. Then tug the fabric a couple of inches on the side of the center staple and when it is taut and even, staple it. Do this again on the other side of the center staple. Then finish that side the same way. The goal is to have the fabric super taut and held down on both sides.

5. After securing two opposite sides, you’ll begin securing one of the remaining sides. I wrapped the side like a gift, trying to keep it tidy and even, and then stapled it, starting with corners first, and always pulling it taut. It kinda gets tricky and would be great if I had an extra hand at this point, but it worked okay. In fact, it occurs to me you could use some straight pins to help you a bit—though they wouldn’t hold it as tautly as your hand would. It could help.

6. A step-by-step photo detail of how I did the corners:

7. Fabric all in place, stapled. Raw back.

8. Take a sheet of heavy scrapbooking paper—cardstock or a fun pattern…

9. Trim it down so it covers all the cork, but isn’t all the way to the edges, and staple it neatly down. This is the back, and it is almost done. Not shown is the toothed picture hanger I used small nails to hammer into the back. You can devise any hanging method you want--- double stick tape, small nails with wire, etc. etc. I have no advice. Be creative.

 

10. And the finished product: Ta da!! :)

And those fabric-covered thumbtacks? Made those too… SUPER cute, SUPER easy. I got the idea from the “How About Orange” Blog a long time ago, and kept procrastinating doing them, thinking they would take some time to figure out.

Guess what?

No time at ALL to figure it out. EASY. Insanely easy. Check out their tutorial, I BEG you. You NEED to make these!:

How About Orange...

Last but not least, Noah, who was stitched to my side nearly the entire time I did this project, wanted to mug for the camera real quick:

So… Go forth and make a bulletin board! :) SO easy, and with all the fabric in the world, your possibilities are endless. You could make four of them in different fabrics and hang them together on a kids’ room wall. You could hang a set of them in a row above your desk to brighten up your work space. You could make a bulletin board and matching apron for the kitchen. CUTE CUTE CUTE. Do it!! :) Then come back and tell me in the comments and link to a photo so I can see yours…

Anyhoo… It took all day to get this thing written, between all the other things I did today, but ta-da! Tutorial done!

Happy Sunday tomorrow!