(DIY) Ballard Designs Message Board

I have a Pinterest board called Art.DIY.Crafting. Now, I love Pinterest. But sometimes I get bogged down by how many great ideas there are that I don't think I will ever have the time to do them all. However, I did do one this past weekend and I. heart. it. Here is the initial pin.

Here.

It's a lovely message board from Ballard Designs (which is a store I absolutely love.. but can be a tad pricey). Upon seeing this, I knew I could DIY it. And yes, DIY is a verb to me.

So I started with a bulletin board I had lying around. I bought a 9x12 drop cloth from Home Depot. I did NOT use the entire drop cloth, the reason I bought such a big size is because there are some other projects I want to use it for. I also got some cute black tacks from HD that serve as the nail head trim. Side note number 1- I over bought on this item. I bought 7 packages of 25. I think I used 2...worst guesstimator ever. The last thing I needed was just some batting from Hobby Lobby. And I already had the staple gun.

So, I spread out the batting and set the board on top of it. Then, I stapled it down. Side note number 2- my hands look really vein-y in this pic.

After the batting was all stapled down...



Next, I did the same thing with the drop cloth. One thing I wish I would have paid more attention to was how thick the batting was around the corners on the back. If it's too thick, it makes it really hard to staple the fabric down through it. I ended up having to cut some of the batting out of the back. It was no big deal, but it would have been easier to not have to do that at all.

Side note number 3- this is how Daisy looked during this process :)

After both the batting and the fabric were stapled down, I started the 'nail head' (aka tack) process. I started at one corner, then measured 2 inches and marked each measurement.

One thing that really helped me stay straight was the fact that this particular bulletin board had a frame. So, I did that all the way around and ended up with the finished product!

Hung up and with some stuff on it...

Loves it!

Let's re-cap cost, shall we?
Bulletin board- $0 (already had)
Batting- $8
Tacks- 3 at $1.50= $4.50
Drop cloth- was $20, but since I only used like 1/8 of it, let's call it $5 because I am bad at math.
Staplegun/staples- $0 (already had)
Total- $17.50ish for a 36x24 board.

Holllllleerrrrr. It's important for me to point out (mostly to the Hubs because I like to brag about savings) that the a similar message board from Ballard Designs is $89. Plus tax and shipping. Just saying :)

Now, I may have gotten carried away with the whole drop cloth/nail head situation... because I have another DIY to share later in the week that uses both of these items.

xoxo, Emily