Fun Memo Board!

Disclaimer: this is not a craft blog - so don't judge my lame tutorial or pics! I just saw these cute memo boards on a couple other blogs I follow. Some people have used them as idea/inspiration boards. My goal is to use them 1) to brighten up our boring office walls and 2) as vision boards! Not like creepy voodoo vision boards... don't stop reading because you think I'm a witch, please ;) I just think it will keep us focused and motivated if we can see our short- and long-term goals displayed visually in our workspace. We'll see how that works out... the purpose may or may not change as time goes on.

Here is the breakdown of my materials:

  Cork Boards (Target) $7 each

Fabric (Ikea) $6 for 1 yard

Thumb tacks (Home Depot) 4 boxes at $1.59 each

3M Adhesive Spray (Home Depot) ~$9

To be fair, I should warn that this project was tedious. But I did it while hubbs watched some miserable movie about Ryan Reynolds being buried alive, so it was a welcome distraction! I'm a fish out of water at Home Depot, so I couldn't find the nailhead trim used by Emily and by the end of the project my thumbs were killing me! But you don't have to make 2 boards... one would be enough... and then your thumbs wouldn't be falling off I don't think.

Onto the good stuff! Start by ironing whatever fabric you decide to use so there aren't creases on your boards.

The faster you can put your fabric to use after ironing, the better... otherwise you might end up with a nosy little helper who thinks its a new kitty bed plopping down on it and getting it all crinkled again.

I cut my fabric in half, but depending on the size of the fabric you use... just cut it to fit your board(s) and a little extra to wrap around the edges. Then spray the cork part of your board with a light coating of adhesive and center and smooth your fabric over the surface.

Push a thumb tack in each corner to secure your fabric. Then comes the fun part. Not. Grab some sort of ruler and start pushing in one thumb tack every inch. And then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Until you have tacks all around the wooden edge of your cork board.

This task is marginally more fun if you have a furry friend who watches your every move, lays on your fabric to hold it still, and then occasionally runs off with a thumb tack in her mouth :)

Once you have your 1" apart tacks in place, go back around the border of your board again and place another thumb tack in between each thumb tack. At this point, your thumbs will start to throb and your kitty will be bored and fall asleep.

When you have all your tacks in place, wake up your cat and flip your board over so you can secure the fabric. I used staples and a few left over thumb tacks, but you can really do this any way you like because no one will ever see it!

Thennn... flip it over and voila! You've got a super cute memo board/inspiration board/vision board to hang in your office, your bedroom, or wherever else you need to post reminders or visual inspiration!

I haven't made room on our office walls yet to hang these babies... they are obviously deserving of some prime wall real estate so I will do some re-arranging of my decor this weekend {after finals, relax MOM!} and show you where they are going to live next week! Until then, I'll just let Bella keep sniffing them.

This was seriously such an inexpensive and easy to complete project! How much more fun will these look on my walls than a plain, drab cork board?! It was definitely worth my sore thumbs. And while *this is not a craft blog* I have to admit... it was sort of fun to let a little crafty energy flow after a week of being buried in my law books! It won't be a regular occurrence I'm sure, but I just might dabble in another home decorating DIY project or two after finals! Stay tuned... and happy memo board-ing!