{Pottery Barn, March 2010}

This is one of those many projects I’ve been moaning over not getting done…..

I have wanted to make this bulletin board for next to my desk for a very long time.   I saw it in my Pottery Barn catalog (two years ago!) and immediately it took over all thoughts of anything else.  I knew I would never, ever in a million years pay what they were asking (easy for me to say since they don’t ship to Alaska anyway) but it seemed as if it should be fairly simple to create. 

If I had a board. And the right graphic. And the right material.

I needed to find a board that wouldn’t be too heavy.  I knew I could just buy burlap at Jo-Ann’s, but I was waiting until it was time to actually make it.  Then last fall I bought paint drop cloth to use for some crafts and knew it would be perfect for “the bulletin board”.  I had the right material!

Then I started seeing all kinds of tutorials on how to print onto fabric.  Or print onto freezer paper and transfer that to the material.  I learned about the ever popular Graphics Fairy.  There are soooo many wonderful choices!  I had a postage meter stamp in mind though so I kept to that idea.  Now I had my choice of graphics!

Then, one day over the holidays – Tov came in from being with my dad out in the shop garage and said “Bumpa wants to know if you want this?”  I loved the fact my dad would think of me before just getting rid of stuff.  Apparently it had plexi-glass something and he wanted it for that, or it is the cover thing to go over the storage in a car.  I’m not sure, where it came from or what it was for – but I knew immediately it would be perfect for “the bulletin board”.  I had the board!

I now had all I needed – board, material, and graphic – and best of all, it was all FREE!  YEA!!!  It still took nearly two months for me to get around to making it – but today I succeeded.  I love it!  And it didn’t take as long as I expected it to (from whatever going wrong).  I didn’t have freezer paper, so I tried spray adhesive to put burlap through my printer.  It was too thick and wouldn’t go through.  So I went to plan B, I used the spray adhesive and printed onto a different color of painters drop cloth (it went through my printer fine) and then “tacky sewed” the smaller piece onto the large one.  I used short flat screws to attach the jute string.  I had two small pieces and wanted to see what it would look like to just tie them together – added a dimension that I really liked.

I will write a post with more detail and better close up pictures, but not tonight….off to watch Cars with my cousin.  Family is awesome!

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