Personalized Bulletin Board Tutorial

About a year ago, I made a giant, very affordable bulletin board with foam core and fabric.  You can see that tutorial here.  It was great until my 2 year old--whom we nicknamed Destructo very early on--got to it.  After a few swipes and knocking it off the wall, it started to fall apart, and pins were everywhere in the carpet.  Foam core had met its match.

My hubby asked if I could use a normal bulletin board with cork and decorate that for our wall.  It would hang more securely, and it would hold the pins more firmly.  In other words, it would be Destructo proof. 

I found two, smaller bulletin boards (one for each boy) at Costco and brought them home.  I was looking for some fun Mod type fabric, but I didn't find exactly what I wanted.  The fabrics were too feminine or too plain.  I knew the fabric needed to complement the tan walls and leather couch in our playroom, so I found a seafoam green fabric that worked.

I made one bulletin board by stapling the fabric into place along the edges--my teaching skills in making bulletin boards came back to me.  I didn't like all the wrinkles and loose fabric that resulted, though.  I picked the most wrinkle prone fabric in the store.  I ironed and ironed until my hand hurt, but it seemed to only multiply the wrinkles. So I made the second bulletin board by using spray adhesive.  I sprayed the cork and smoothed the fabric over the cork.  MUCH better!  I stapled the edges and then I glued a thick, dark chocolate ribbon around the edge of both bulletin boards.  I used my photo drink coasters to hold down the ribbon as the glue dried in the corners of the ribbon. 

The stapled edges before the ribbon was glued around the edges.

Do you see the wrinkles?  Ugh!  The second one is MUCH better, but I didn't take a prep picture of it.

Finally, I printed out each boy's name on dark brown vinyl on my Silhouette.  It added a little fun touch to have each board labeled with chunky letters.

Voila!  My hubby hung up both of the boards, and now we are ready to see if they are Destructo proof.