Beautiful Boards

Hello my lovelies! Hope everyone has had a fab Christmas and New Year! + I must apologise for the ridiculously long gap between the last post and this one but everything has just been so manic lately so I'll fill you in! My manager left at work which then meant we were about a month without anyone before the manager came who was across my store and another, then my best friend at work left + got promoted in another store, then my assistant manager left and so did a few other members of staff which resulted in us being heavily understaffed over the whole Christmas and build up period. So I had no time to make any posts, and when I did I was just to exhausted to do anything! But it's not bad at all because I got promoted myself on January 1st! So new year, new job, new car, new everything!

So I have been trying to organise my studio so I can get my watercolour and so I can sort out and plan my blogs over the next year. I've made them so I can pin and write notes to myself at any time. I wanted to make two pin boards, a slip board and a wipe board. I wanted them to be beautiful and inspiring, not just a basic cork board. They needed to add to my space and be accessible.

 What you need to create these boards:
 - 1 Pack Cork Tiles (12x12)
- 4 Photo Frames (11x14) - 3 with the glass removed
- Strong Glue or Wood Glue
- Scissors
- Patterned Fabric Quarters
- Craft Knife
- Ribbon
- Thumb Tacks
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Pen
- Drill
- 4 Screws.

To make the two cork boards you'll need at least two of the cork tiles. You can chose which way round you have them up, the matte side or the shinny flatter side. i went for the shinny side because I thought it gave a nicer, cleaner finish (also the matte side has a stamp on it from production). Now I could have just gone for sticking one down and then the next and having almost a full square with one thin strip. But where would be the fun in that? So instead I cut them into triangles and jigsaw'd the whole lot together. This does require patience and a steady hand. I cut up two tiles for each frame, using scissors for the long lines and marking them out on the matte side with a pencil and a ruler. Once all my parts were cut out I stuck them all onto the backing board of my photo frames using wood glue, and trimmed the edges down - I cannot STRESS enough how careful you have to be when doing this with a craft knife! It's so easy for the knife to get caught on a little bit of cork and slide over the cardboard backing and into your thumb! It happened to me, it can happen to you, blood went everywhere! It didn't stop bleeding and I had to get my dad to plaster it up for me. But If you're careful and slow and patient they'll end up looking like this.

For the slip board I started by sticking down two cork boards onto the card board backing so I had enough depth to stick pins in. Once they were stuck down, dry and trimmed I glued on one of my quarter pieces of fabric around the edges and on the back on three sides. So if you imagine the right side of the fabric was facing down, then I placed the cork board cork side down on the fabric in the centre, folded the edges over and glued three sides down. Using the flap once the glue was dry I then stuffed it with polyester craft and toy stuffing to give it a 3D depth and so it has that really touchy-felly appearance. I glued over the last edge and then pulled out my ribbon. I chose a black ribbon because I thought it worked well with my black frames an added enough contrast to the pattered blue floral fabric I chose for this board. I criss-crossed the black ribbon across the board, again gluing it on the backing board. Where the ribbon crossed I placed a gold thumb tack through and into the board. This meant I had squares on the board to slip notes and pictures under. When it's done it should look something like this.

Finally for the final board - my wipe board. This is the only one that you need glass in for. I took out the backing board and straight glued onto it another fabric quarter. This one is the same print as the slip board but this time in a red colour way. Once the glue was dry I put it back in the glass picture frame and voila. Instant fancy wipe board! Just grab some wipe board pens and glass cloth and you're set! This is what the final board looks like.

Now all thats left to do is measure your wall space, use your phone's compass app as a spirt level and drill in four screws to hang your frames from. + then you're ready to write, create, draw and plan to your hearts content! 

+ because they're so beautiful with patterns and geometry the make quite a lovely wall piece just as they are! I think they're stunning and have transformed the far wall of my studio for the better!

Hope you all have a fan weekend!