So I went online and located these directions supplied by the DIY Network and found them easy enough to follow. For the fabric selection, I enlisted the help of Sheila, who has an eye for choosing and combining different colors. The fabric I chose is a quilt fabric in an up-to-date paisley print in aquas, blues, tans and browns. The rope trim is a cream color and the ribbon for the diagonals is brown. Luckily I have a husband who has all kinds of wood tools, including saws, so I just put in my order for a plywood rectangle in the recommended size.
I found the instructions easy to work with and soon I was ready to staple. Let's just say that the hand-held (not electric) staple gun and I haven't always been friends. But now that I learned to use it correctly, the job of stapling the fabric to the back of the plywood was quickly completed. The most difficult part of stapling was trying to figure out how to reload the staples into the thing. I tried one way, then another, then decided to break for lunch. When I got back, that little light bulb popped on over my head (that seems to happen a lot to me) and I figured out that the way to load staples was the most counterintuitive process I've ever seen.
Close to completing my bulletin board project, I realized some things. First of all, all of those giant staples would probably scratch the heck out of the wall, so I hot glued a piece of fabric onto the back of the board once I was sure I was done with stapling. Then, I noticed that the scraggly ends of the rope trim are going to be visible. I solved this problem by buying some pretty big buttons and hot gluing one over the ends and another directly across the board from that one. Finally, after hanging the board on the wall and placing some items in it, I found that they were falling through. I knew that I would have to secure the places where the ribbons criss-crossed each other. Ordinary thumbtacks and a hammer were all that were needed for that. If I made another one of these, I'd use a thicker loft batting. I think that would solve that problem. After the thumbtacks were in place, I glued some little flat glass acorns right onto the thumbtacks. I don't know where I got these and what I intended to use them for, but they were just the right thing for this project.
The great thing about this bulletin board project is that it can be done for very little money. Most fabric stores have a nice selection of remnants and you don't need that big of a fabric piece for this. Plus, the remaining supplies can all be purchased very inexpensively. This was a fun project to do and no special skills were needed, thank goodness. I'm all about simplicity.
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