15 August 2011

Take a humble wooden clothes peg

And use it as inspiration to create a nifty notice board!

I needed somewhere to stick notes and other little bits of paper that seem to breed on my desk so I went looking for a corkboard. Not only could I not find one to fit, but the ones I found were either cheap and nasty (very, very cheap and very, very, very nasty) or way out of my price range. They say necessity is the mother of invention and I had quite made up my mind that a notice board was necessary, so I decided to make one.

The challenge was to make it to suit my office and my budget. In my hallway stands a chest of drawers, very old, very heavy and very big. And full to almost over-flowing with craft supplies so the craft drawers were my first port of call. Hannah and I tidied them up not so long ago so it was easy to find what I wanted. The only thing I didn't have on hand was a frame to hold the board part of the notice board.

To make your noticeboard you will need:

A photo frame the size you need
Patterned paper to fit the frame
Craft paint in your desired colour
Picture wire
Screw in wire "eyes" (the type you use for hanging curtain wire)
Wooden clothes pegs
Embellishments
Hot glue gun or sticky glue

To make your noticeboard:

Take the back off your frame. Wipe it over with a clean, damp cloth to make sure it's dust free. Paint the frame using the craft paint. Remember, light, even coats look better and allow you to build up a depth of colour. Paint your pegs to match.  Allow to dry thoroughly.

While the frame is drying, measure the patterned paper and cut to fit the backing board from the frame. Glue into place, smoothing to remove any bubbles.

Once the frame is dry replace the covered backing board.

Measure one side of the frame into 3 evenly spaced sections and mark. Measure down the other side to correspond.

Screw the eyes into the frame at the markings. String wire across frame by wrapping securely around one eye. Then pull the wire across to the other side, making sure it is taught. Wind securely around the other eye and trim the end.

To decorate the pegs glue the embellishments onto one side. You can use little wooden or metal embellishments or stickers, whatever you have. If you are an organized personality you can print labels off and stick one to each peg so you can organize your notes i.e. bills, phone messages, To Do etc.

You can either hang the noticeboard on the wall or attach a magnet to each corner and hang it on the front of the fridge or the side of a filing cabinet.

My noticeboard cost the grand total of $1.97, and that was for the frame. It was on the throw out trolley at Sam's Warehouse and I snapped it up. Originally dark brown, it came up beautifully with three light coats of cream craft paint. The pegs were lurking in the bottom of my peg bucket, so no cost there. I rescued the wire from the leftovers of a picture hanging kit stashed in my sewing box. And the pretty patterned paper? Well that is a sheet of scrapbooking paper I'd kept because I love the pattern and colour.

3 comments:

  1. Just wondering where the photos were please? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. yes where are the photos ? it sounded interesting so came to have a look

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great idea. Now why didn't I think of that :-) Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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