My little girl asked for a bulletin board to put pictures of her friends up in her room. But the idea of her having push pins was definitely not a good one! So I made her a Ribbon Memo Board with beautiful grosgrain ribbon from Ribbon Revelry!
Here is what I used:
- 16″ X 20″ canvas
- Scrap piece of quilt batting large enough to cover the surface of the canvas
- Fabric about 24″ X 28″
- 7 yards of 3/8″ Ribbon
- Glue Gun
- Staple Gun
- Carpenter Square
- Scissors
- Thread & needle
- Optional: buttons
- Cut batting so that it is just large enough to extend around the edge of the canvas.
- Secure the batting around the edges with hot glue.
- Lay fabric under batting covered canvas. Fold raw edge of fabric under and secure along wood of canvas using your trusty nail gun. Work your way around the perimeter of the canvas.
- Now for the ribbon! I started in one corner and used a carpenter square to keep my angles consistent. Secure the ribbon to the wood on the back side of the canvas. Make sure you have both points of the staple into the ribbon so as to not allow it to slip and slide, changing the angle of your ribbon on the front. Keep everything taut as can be!
- Now staple the other side of the ribbon to the back side of the canvas. This creates the line that you will work off of to keep everything straight.
- Now for your next piece of ribbon. I measured at the top and bottom to make sure the lines of ribbon were parallel.
- When adding the ribbon that goes perpendicular, I wove them. I alternated above and below moving across the board and then staggered it with the next line of ribbon. Soon I had this:
- You will need to secure the points at which the ribbons come together in an X. You can use a thread and needle. This allows pictures to stay put on your lovely, made-with-love memo board!
So, my dilemma is now: plain or add a bit of whimsy with mismatched buttons? What do you think?
About Natalie
I used to make and sell custom ribbon boards in my etsy shop, back in the day before the kiddies took over my life completely. The buttons are really cute and will help hold bigger or odd-size pictures in place. You can also use brads where the ribbons intersect to hold the ribbons in place.
lucky little girl!
Also, if you turn the canvas over and mark the sides at regular intervals and use those marks to place your ribbons, you won’t need the carpenter’s square – the angles will be perfect every time.
not to sound all teachy or anything because of course your ribbon board turned out beautifully.
Heavens to Betsy Melissa – that’s adorable. Uhm…may have to hire you to make one for me. Love!!
Hi Jeanette! Not teachy at all! Most of the stuff I have been posting here have truly been “adventures” so any advice or suggestions are totally welcome! Did you use canvas when you made them or did you use a cork board? Do you think the brads would be okay poked through the canvas? I have only attached 4 buttons so far and it is taking me FOREVER. Brads would be much quicker. And marking the back of the canvas instead of fumbling around with a carpenter square is brilliant!
THANKS for the ideas!
Glad you like it Karen!
Very nice, not sure how you have all the time LOL!
This project didn’t take that long! Although finding my staple gun took FOREVER!
Someone made one of those for my DD as a graduation present in HS and it’s super cute. Now I know how to make one for myself!
You should! I love that you can make it to match anything.
Love, love, love this bulletin board idea! esp since I have a 2 yo in the house. Push pins would be a nightmare.
Bookmarking for our next rainy day project!
Oh, yeah… push pins are not good around the little ones. My daughter seems to have a radar for everything on the floor that is bite sized, dangerous or both! Push pins wouldn’t help that situation!
Yep I used a canvas. Just use an exacto knife to poke a small hole through the ribbon, canvas, and batting, and then insert the brad through the hole and seal on the other side. If you want, you can “cheat” and hot glue the buttons on top of the brads to get the button look a lot faster.
Ooh! Good idea about gluing the buttons on the brads! Sounds like that would save a lot of time! Thanks, Jeanette!
There were a lot of important details covered here.
Kerry Propper