Ribbon Memo Board

My memo board is sometimes a little overwhelming. Brown, dull, and full of clutter, all it seems to do is remind me of how much I should panic over how much I need to do. Plus it does very little to pretty up my wall. It’s a pretty simple little device -- simple enough, I'd say, to make my own!

Let’s start with your memo board base, either cork board or foam core board. I'm using foam core. Measure out how large your board needs to be to fit in your frame. You'll want to mark it just a little bit smaller than the frame edge so it’s got some room to fit once it's covered in fabric. Cut your board to size. Now you have a pretty good idea how much fabric you'll need to cover it.

Grab your fabric and your stabilizer, and cut your fabric so it’s large enough to cover your board with a few inches around to spare. I'd recommend hooping it up with no-show mesh cutaway stabilizer, otherwise the edge of your trimmed stabilizer might show through once you wrap it around your board. Time to embroider your design! I picked our light-stitching lotus design, and then added some fun text using my software. If you want a quick rundown on how to add text with your machine, you can check out this tutorial.

Now it's time to assemble it together. If you haven't already, trim your fabric so it's just a few inches larger than your board. Take a piece of your cotton batting and trim it to the same size as your board. Lay the batting on top of your board, and then cover it with your fabric, carefully centering your design.

With your design centered, carefully flip everything upside down and grab your hot glue gun. Lay a line of glue down one side, and pull your fabric tight around the edge, smoothing it down (without burning your fingertips off). Work it from opposite sides, so you can keep the tension even.

When you get to the corners, there are a couple ways of tackling it. I like to lay a line of glue and tug the excess towards the center. You can also just fold each corner flat at 90 degrees.

This is the back of my board after it's been all glued. Not very pretty, but no worries. We'll get there.

If you want some areas where you can just tuck in photos or notes, you can add some strips of ribbon to your board. Cut four even pieces and lay them over the corners. It helps to measure the distance from the edges to get the ribbon pieces to all come out evenly at the corners. To keep them from shifting, I taped the ribbons in place on the front, then flipped it over and glued each piece in place.

Nearly there! This is the board after everything has been glued in place.

Let’s tidy up that back! Grab your piece of tag board and cut it so it's just a little bit smaller than the back of your board. Run a line of glue all the way around the edges, and secure your tag board to the back to make everything look nice and neat.

Now, all we need to do is put it in its pretty frame! Give the inside of your frame a line of glue around the edges and fit your board in place. You may want to add some extra glue once it's in to make sure it's in there nice and tight.

All done! Your new wall decor is also an awesome organizational tool. Instead of looking at an ugly brown, stress-inducing board, you've got a chic and soothing piece that reminds you to take a breath and find a little “Namaste” in your life.

Your grand piece of wall art still functions as a wonderful place to pin on notes and memos, or tuck in photos and cards to keep yourself organized. It's such a simple piece to make, you owe it to yourself to dress up your wall a bit and keep yourself organized in a laid back and stylin' manner.