Hanging Jewelry Board

After my success making my own french memo boards, I decided to use a similar technique to make a board for Cavegirl to hang her necklaces, bracelets, and hair elastics on. She has a decent amount, but she rarely wears any of  them. My theory is that it's because she can never FIND them. A pretty, convenient display would not only get more bling into the rotation, but would, perhaps, keep me from finding her jewelry in odd places (all over the floor, under her bed, in her clothes hamper, etc.)

For this project:

12 x 6 inch plywood (I used 1/2 inch thick)
Scrap fabric that is about 15 x 8
Picture hanger
Small hooks (I used white cup hooks I found on ebay)
Piece of paper or cardboard cut to the size of your board.
Heavy duty stapler
Awl (or another pointy object capable of pushing a similar sized hole into a piece of fabric)
Duct or masking tape

I had several misfires on this project so I am not going to tell you how I would do it, but how I would do it if I did it again.

Put your paper or cardboard over the board and line it up with the edges.  Tape in place. You are making a template of where the holes are going to be so you can find them again later once the fabric is on. Drill your holes through the template and into the board. Use a bit as close in size to the screw portion of your hooks as possible. I chose to put two holes across the top and two across the bottom, staggered. (see photo at the bottom of post). You can also put them coming out from the bottom, if you wish. I might add those on later.

Remove your template and attach your fabric. Unlike the french memo boards, I don't recommend using batting. It will make putting the hooks in difficult. Use the wrapping strategy discussed here to wrap the fabric around your board and staple it in place.

Put your template back on top of your board, line it up, and tape in place. Use the awl to poke a hole through the template, fabric, and into the pre-drilled hole in your plywood. It only has to be big enough to insert the screw part of your hook. Be careful not to tear the fabric more than just making a small hole. Do this for each hole.

Attach your picture hanger to the back.

Screw in your hooks. If they seem a little loose, you can use a tiny bit of glue to hold them in place. Try to avoid glue if you can, because you run the risk of getting it on your fabric.

Hang on your wall, fill it with bling, and admire!

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.