French Memo Boards

Cavegirl loves hanging photos and cards in her room. She has a little memo board that we got at Five Below, but it's stuffed. I had some fabric left over from when I made her quilt, so I thought, why not make our own?

Here's what you will need:

12 x 12 piece of plywood. You can go bigger, certainly, but we had two specific spaces on the wall that we wanted to fill, and two of these worked perfectly. We used plywood that was about 1/2 inch thick.

• Fabric remnants. Should be at least four inches longer and wider than your boards. So for us, 16 x 16
• Quilt batting, if desired. We wanted a puffier, softer look. 16 x 16, same as the fabric.
• Ribbon in coordinating colors. We got the cheap stuff at AC Moore.
• Upholstery tacks. We used white
• Heavy duty stapler
• Hammer
• Cloth or rag
• Picture hangers

Sand the edges of your plywood and iron your fabric. Place your fabric good side down on your work surface, then line up the batting right on top.

Place the plywood in the middle. Now you are going to wrap the fabric round the board. Start at the bottom. Wrap the excess fabric and batting around the plywood and staple in place at either end and in the middle. Do the same with the top, being sure to pull the fabric and batting snug.

I have found that the easiest way to do the sides is to fold the corners in and then pull the triangle you have up and staple that - kind of like you are wrapping a present. The problem is, there will be a lot of bulk in the corners. I wound up cutting away some of that so it wouldn't be as bulky.

Here's what you will have when you are finished.

Cut two pieces of ribbon the length of your diagonal plus about three inches. Staple these in place. These have to be tight, too, or the cards and photos will slip right out. Put your staple on the back as close to the corner as possible to keep the ribbon from slipping off the corner.
You will need to hammer the upholstery tack in. Make sure to cover the tack with a cloth or rag so you don't scrape off the finish with the hammer.
Attach picture hangers on back. I like the sawtooth kind.

Ta - da!

Now certainly you can make these different shapes and sizes. Just be sure to use an upholstery tack any place where two pieces of ribbon intersect.