My first baby!

Ladies and Gentleman, we are going back in time for this post. In the summer of 2007, I could not get my mind off of making a fully functional board that would allow me a place to write notes on, hang pictures, and leave some random papers (there are always certain papers that stay on my desk for about a year because they are too important to put away). I wanted something that matched the decor of my room and that was large enough to actually be useful. The end result? This beauty:

I have a thing for ornate gold frames; I'm sure you'll see more of them in future posts. So, my first task was to find a frame I absolutely loved. After searching for months (really), I came across this one at Michaels. If I remember correctly, it was $60-something and I had a 50% off coupon. BOOM! If you are as obsessed with frames as I am, you know your frame prices and realize that for this beauty, that is a steal. I literally could have hung this frame on the wall with nothing in it and I would have been happy! But, my one track mind wouldn't let that happen...

After I had the frame and knew the dimensions, I got 5 pieces of corkboard and one piece of plywood that I cut to match the size of the corkboard. These six pieces fit perfectly in the frame (thank God, because the corkboard pieces were already cut!).

I took the plywood and spray-painted it with chalkboard paint. While that was drying, I went to work on the corkboard squares. I had been gathering fabric that matched my bedspread. Luckily, shabby chic was really in and I was able to find things that matched it perfectly.

I left one of the corkboard pieces uncovered and covered three of them with the same fabric and then covered the last one in a green fabric. On the green covered piece, I took ribbon that had little roses on it and crisscrossed the ribbon on the board and then glued the ribbon to the back. Once the ribbons were glued, I glued random cross-sections so that I could slip pictures in without them falling out! It turned out really well! You might want to think about the size and layout of the pictures you want to insert. For example I have more landscape pictures than vertical, so I needed to make enough room to slip the pictures between cross-section (i.e., do not glue every cross-section!)

The only other square I had left to decorate was the one below. I took the remaining green fabric, split it into two sections, and wrapped them around the bottom of that piece to create two pockets.

Once the boards were all finished and ready to be inserted into the frame, I laid them all down, put the frame on top, and then put another piece of wood on the back that fit into the back of the frame. I stapled the wood to the frame and I was all done!

To this day, this is one of my favorite projects. I think mostly because it was my first big DIY that I made without getting the idea from somewhere else.

Hope you like it! What has been your favorite DIY?

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