craftygal table - Create Your Own French Memo Board

Price compare with this one from Camellia & Main.

Now you're on your way to becoming a professional organizer.

Jazz Up and Organize

by Angie

Are you tired of those lackluster, monochrome corkboards? Do your kids try to eat the thumbtacks that fall from the corkboard? Is your office space screaming for some pizzazz? Fabric covered memo boards are the quick, easy, colorful way to liven up your space, and they’re functional too.

You can use an array of items to create your memo board depending on what you’ve got handy or how much you want to spend on supplies. For the board, you could use any of the following: an existing corkboard, a prepared artist canvas, pressed paperboard, or 1/4" plywood.

Some ideas for the covering are purchasing fabric of your liking, using an old dress shirt or skirt, or even a dishtowel; you can make most any cloth that fits the size of your board work. For the straps you could use ribbon, rick-a-rack, shoelaces, or some types of rope. You will probably want to use a layer of quilt batting between your fabric and board as well. You may also want to use some decorative items like buttons, decals, or upholstery tacks for the places where your straps cross.

For this demonstration, I used the following items:

A 20"x16" prepared canvas (that I purchased two for seven dollars at JoAnn Etc.)

One yard of fabric

One yard of quilt batting

Three packages of jumbo rick-rack

A sewing needle

Thread that matches the color of the rick-rack

Picture hanging hardware

Thumb tacks or straight pins

A staple gun

A hammer

1. To begin, cut the fabric so that it is about 3 inches larger (on each side) than the board.

2. Now do the same with the quilt batting, but keep it a bit smaller than the fabric (about 2 inches larger than the board).

3. Lay the fabric, quilt batting, and board on a flat surface, layered in that order, with the fabric facing down.

4. Pull the fabric tight over the edge and to the back of the board. Staple the fabric to the back edges of the board. This will work best if you staple each side in the middle first, and then proceed to staple the rest of the sides down. Depending on the quality of your staple gun, you may need to use the hammer to pound the staples the rest of the way into your frame. You may also have excess fabric, depending on the thickness of your frame. If you’re a neat freak, you can just trim the excess fabric off once you’re done stapling the fabric to the frame.

5. Now that you’ve got your background, you can start to plan how you’ll want your straps placed on the board. I recommend not cutting any of the straps until you’re sure how you want them placed. It’s also a good idea to buy extra material for the straps, as there isn’t an easy way to figure out exactly how much you’ll need. The next two graphics show the most popular designs for the straps.

6. Once you’ve decided how you want your straps placed, you need hold them in place. You can use either straight pins or thumb tacks for this purpose, depending on which works best with your materials.

7. Now you need to staple each of the straps in place using the staple gun. Once again you will be stapling on the back edges of the board, and you may need to use the hammer to finish pounding the staple into the board.

8. Now that you have the straps done, you need to secure the places where the straps meet. Take your sewing needle, and with thread that matches your strap, place a couple of stitches at each point where the straps cross one another. This is what will keep your papers from falling out of the memo board.

9. If you wish, you can place buttons, fabric covered upholstery tacks, or decals at the points where the straps meet.

10. Now all that’s left to do is put the picture hanging hardware on the back of your board and hang it up.

Angie is an insanely organized crafter with a keen sense of home-decor. She works with several of the Craftygals and indulges in knitting and rubberstamping on a regular basis.