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I am a photography fanatic. I love taking pictures, tweaking pictures, and finding the beauty in every day items

Thursday, March 25, 2010

How To Make A Memory Board

Who knew that ribbon and batting could be sooo dang cute. I have been in love with these boards for years, but never could get myself to get one.

Not only are these uber cute... but they were surprisingly easy and fast.... I'm serious. I was asked to teach a group of girls, ages 12-14, a decorating craft that they could use in their bedroom and I taught them this. Theirs was as good as mine.

All you need is...

A board to hold everything (either plywood, cork board, art canvas, any piece of wood really)
Quilt Batting
Fabric
Ribbon
Stapler (normal or staple gun)
Decorations for embellishment: buttons, flowers, jems

First find a board and size that you like. I used a plywood board that I got cut from Lowe's, they had a 4x2 piece for $9 and they cut it in half for free, so I had two nice 2x2 boards. Once you have the size of board that you want, you will want to go to a fabric store and pick out how much fabric and batting you will be needing.

Now you can take your board and lay it down on fabric and batting. Make sure that you lay the fabric face down (pattern on the floor), then batting and then the board. You can use as much batting as you want. I used a medium thickness and double layered it.... I like the look of the fluffier boards. You will want to trim the batting at this point... the batting should almost be the same size as the board, but the fabric needs to be a few inches larger on all sides.

Now that you have everything laid out, pull and tug the fabric to make sure that it is nice and smooth. When you feel that you have everything in place you can begin to staple one of the sides. You can either use a staple gun (that has not too deep staples) or you can use a normal home stapler..... I tried both and actually preferred the home stapler.

Remember to only staple ONE SIDE, and try to keep it even and smooth. Place your staples 2-3 inches apart and not too close to the edge.... you will want to give yourself a little bit of space from the edge so you can correct any mistakes. Once you have a side completed start stapling the opposite side. Now make sure that you don't pull too hard and pull the fabric which might tweak it. Repeat these steps with the top and bottom sides as well. Now you should have a completely secure board.

Now you can start to place your ribbon. Flip the board over and make a large 'X' from corner to corner with two ribbons and staple them firmly in place on the back of the board. These will be the guidelines for the rest of the ribbons. Go ahead and lay as many ribbons as you like down.

When all your ribbon is layed down and placed where you like it start to staple them in place on the front of the board.... where the ribbons crossover and connect. When all the ribbon is stapled down, you can flip the board over and start to staple down loose ends.

Now your board should look almost complete. All that is needed now is to glue some embellishments to hide the staples that are securing the ribbon down. I used buttons to hide the staples, you could also use flowers, jems, or bows. Once dried and finish you should have one beautiful and custom made memory board.

This has been one of my favorite crafts that I have done... I want to do more, but honestly... how many memory boards does a family need? :)

8 comments:

  1. Cute Melissa! If you ever come down to UT we'll have to do a crafty thing together!:)

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  2. Seriously... I soooo wish we were coming down there... soooo mad. I did tell you that Curtis's boss said "no" right? So, we have to stay up here. We might come down though... we really want to see friends and family.

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  3. Hi I have just found your blog when looking for ideas for home made gifts for my daughter. I am making one of these today and hope to post about it on my blog after my daughters birthday next Saturday ( she reads and I would hate to spoil her suprises)Thanks have added to follow you hope you dont mind

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  4. Hi, Thanks for the awesome idea. I was actually in Hobby Lobby yesterday morning with my 5,3, and 1 year old and did a search on my phone for how to make a memory board after seeing one in the store and your blog popped up. Since I didn't want to go to more than one store I used the art canvas. The only problem I came across was that I had to stick a piece of tile under when I was stapling down the ribbon. Otherwise it was WONDERFUL!! Next time I will be sure to just use some wood.
    Thanks so much for the easy instructions! I hope to get some pics up on my blog soon!

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  5. I'm your newest follower. :) This is a super tutorial! You are cordially invited to join the Family Memory Board Link Party. This post would fit is spectacularly! I hope to see you there.

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  6. Thanks! I just pinned this on Pinterest ♥

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  7. Very effective material, I'm so interesting in your new book's section about sharing social objects, and I'm agree with you!Thanks for your work. -- OKLAHOMA CITY DINING

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