A True Account of a Memory Board.

My mother has a tendency to think that I possess something of a Midas touch when it comes to quilts and crafts and things of that nature. Lest she--and you all--be deceived, here is a close (perhaps too close) look at my latest project.

Project Memory Board. 

(inspired by a coworker who's actually selling a form of these and I thought heck, I can do that)

Supplies:

1 old bulletin board from the used store Value Village: $4

A few pieces of fabric I already had: free

Ribbon: $2.50

Black spray paint I already had

Do-it yourself button thingies: $2.50

A day of pain and frustration: not so priceless. And maybe not worth $9.

Step One: I figure out how to take off one side of the bulletin board frame to remove the cork part. Not wanting to damage the wood it took me 20 minutes.

Step Two: attaching the fabric to the board. The fabric I chose may look familiar to some of you. Remember this?

I have about 5 rectangles of this and have just had it lying around. Why not use it now for a fall inspired memo board? Great idea? Sure, except it BARELY fits around the board. Hot glue gun you were my friend.

Step Three: The buttons.

These little button thingies are supposed to allow you to take a circle of fabric, hook it on the teeth in the back and pop the back part on to secure it. Sounds easy right?

Not so right.

This is what the little devils look like:

Note the sharp pointy teeth.

Yeah.

Well, being the crafty Midas I am I decide to use needle nose pliers to take that button loophole thing in the back off since I wanted them flat.

I grabbed them with the pliers and gently began to pull.

Nothing.

I pulled a little harder.

Nothing.

I gave it a frustrated yank and...tore a nasty gash in my thumb from the extruding wire. I stomped to the bathroom, wrapped a band aid on it and marched to the kitchen where I pulled out a carton of ice cream, grabbed a spoon and gobbled a few bites to help ward off the pain.

Try this next time you get hurt. It works.

I sat back down to try it again. Yes I'm that stupid. This time I realized Ooooh...if you pinch it together it comes out easily! Dur!

So I did that.

Then I went to work on getting the fabric into the teeth. Um owie? The instructions say to use a pencil eraser to help. Well, this isn't really regular fabric. It's some sort of polyester vinyl thing with velvet curlies on it. So it doesn't really stay that well...and the button back doesn't exactly snap into place.

So I turned to an old faithful--the hot glue gun. I have memories of my mom's big heavy duty, blue glue gun with bits of sparkles, thread, wood, whatever glued to the outside of it. I think part of it was even melted. This thing was large and in charge. Mine is not. Mine was in a sale bin for $2 and its a mini version, but it does the job.

I put a dollop inside the button and use the eraser to push the first edge in. Success! Then i do the other side...this looks like its going to work!

Then I squeeze out too big a dollop, and it gets on my left hand pointer and middle fingers. In searing pain I drop it on the table only to think "Dang it! I want to paint this table I can't burn it!" So what do I do automatically and (obviously) without thinking?

Pick it back up with my right hand...and burn my thumb and pointer and middle fingers on that hand.

Six fingers down, four to go. (and you can thank me later for not including the photo of my burned finger in macro focus).

Eventually and with a few more burns along the way, i get all the buttons covered. Aren't' they cute?

Now that I'd wasted a few hours of my life and a lot of skin cells, I headed to my parking spot to spray paint the frame.

At least there were no hiccups with that one, unless someone reported me to the HOA for spray painting in the garage. I don't know if that's allowed...I'll keep you posted.

Now I could see the finish line. just had to put the pieces all together.

I used a ruler to mark out where to put the ribbons, and began gluing them in place. Not so bad...except when I turned it around and two of the ribbons twisted in the middle.

Dang it.

So I redid those.

And glued the buttons on.

And stood back to admire my work.

(oh, not all the buttons were not on in this pic...)

Then I stood it up and tested a piece of paper in the ribbon.

Schwoop. It fell to the floor. Then I realized why memo boards have batting behind them...to create tension between the ribbons and the memos...oooh. Didn't do that part. Too late now!

Today I retrieved the frame and slid the whole thing into place, and actually managed to put it back together without a glue gun and with the original tack-things that held it together!

SO, after this long and loquacious explanation, here at last are the final pictures of the memory board in its resting place above the desk in our bedroom. Yes its a bit fall-ish and won't be a year round institute, but next year when the leaves begin to change and I unpack it I'll have the bittersweet memory of its creation, and the very long story I made it to tell you.

Oh, and note the oddly shaped red candle in the top left hand corner? That happened during our heat wave. Yes, it was so hot in our bedroom it was melting candles.

Thus endeth the creation of the memory board and I'm giving my fingers time to heal.