DIY Burlap Bulletin Board

Written by: Rona

When we moved in our house five years ago, I envisioned a large bulletin board above the butcher block to keep things organized. Instead we’ve been living with a cluttered corner on our kitchen counter. When the pile got too high, we would “binge organize” and purge papers till the pile is down to an acceptable size. Needless to say, this DIY burlap bulletin board is long overdue. I’ve seen similar products at Ballard Design, Pottery Barn and Etsy. This one was made with a fraction of the cost.

Materials:

Stretched canvas (I upcycled a used canvas from the art department at school)
Burlap (mine is from the fabulous burlapfabric.com)
Upholstery tacks
Cork tiles
Hot glue gun
Rubber hammer
Nail gun

Step 1: Trim the burlap to size. I cut mine to be 10 inches larger than the canvas dimensions. You may need to adjust the allowance depending on the thickness of your canvas.

Step 2: Center the canvas on top of the fabric. Start at the center of one side; wrap the burlap around the frame then staple. Continue this process towards the corners. Once the first side is stapled, move on to the opposite side. Be sure to pull the burlap taught. If you prefer a clean edge, fold the raw edges in first then staple like I did here.

Step 3: Wrap the corners, fold as neatly as you can. The material here will be a bit bulky. Don’t be afraid to shoot several staples to hold it in place.

Step 4 (optional): Cut a piece of burlap with a finished edge of desired width. Staple it to the bottom edge of the board to create a pocket. Originally, I planned to use webbing but the green trim the burlap came with was too cute not to feature.

Step 5: Place upholstery tacks along the edges with even spacing. I used a measuring tape as a guide to help with spacing and straightness. Given the tacks a good press so they stay in place, then hammer in with a rubber hammer. If you like a more distressed look, use a regular hammer instead.

Step 6: Place the cork tiles on the back of the canvas, trim the excess with scissors. Secure in place with hot glue.

I’m really happy with how the bulletin board turned out. I don’t know why I waited this long to tackle this project. Do you have cluttered corners or piles of paper you’re dying to organize? Do you have any tips on to keep mail/reminders/coupons organized?

25
Aug
2014

Alphabet Practice Activity– Pom Pom style

Written by: Grace

It’s that time of the year. Sweet, sweet Summer is ending, and some of us are gearing up for the start of the new school year.Because I am one of those sickos, who admittedly has an odd fervor for the beginning of the school year (and school in general), I became a teacher, so I could make sure I never have to let go of the back-to-school jitters (that and office supplies. I love office supplies). I, also, enjoy singing Billy Madison’s “Back to School” song on my first day of school.

In the spirit of the back-to-school season, I am going to share with you an easy and cute alphabet practice activity. My oldest is one year away from kindergarten, and working on our letters is the big push around the house.

This Alphabet Practice Activity is great because it does not just focus on a letter, but it also hones fine motor skills.

Here’s what you’ll need:

- White School Glue

- Pom Poms- assorted sizes and colors

- Cardstock or any paper

- a sharpie or marker

Here’s what you’ll do:

- Draw a fairly large letter. Any letter. For this, I did first initials, and wrote the full name under the letter.

- Place some glue on a plate for easy dipping.

- Open up Pom-Poms.

- Model dipping a pom-pom into the glue and placing it on the outline of the letter.

- Let your little one(s) have at it.

BONUS: Want to up the learning ante? Talk about patterns and colors while arranging the pom-poms.

Here is my son’s and Sophia’s, my good friend’s daughter, letters.

For Sophia’s letter, I framed hers, so she could hang it in her room- alphabet practice activity and room decor–score!

I’m eager to hear of some other activities you use to practice the alphabet!

Nutter Butter Santas Recipe

15
Aug
2014

Hide Those TV Components

Written by: Lisa

I’ll be the first to admit it—I love TV. My husband thinks that I enjoy watching TV so much because I did not experience cable TV until I went to college. Yup, I grew up with channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, & 13, which seemed just fine to me. Now, what I don’t particularly love about TV is the number of wires/components that go with it.

When we first moved in, we used a large cabinet as our TV stand. It housed all TV/Wireless related components, DVDs, photo albums, and the occasional other random thing or two. Everything was hidden out of sight.

A clear sign of recent moving- sparse rooms

After being in our house a year and a half, it was my project to breathe some new life into our living room. As much as I loved the green piece, I knew I wanted to move it to the bay window and use it to hold platters and things of that nature. Instead of a bulky piece of furniture, I wanted an open piece for our TV in order to keep the room airy.

While furniture shopping with my mother in law, we found this console table at Pottery Barn on super-super clearance, and I knew it was meant to be.

*image taken from Google*

The first thing I wanted to do was lift the TV off the stand and mount it on the wall. Since we didn’t want wires hanging down, we purchased this fabulous kit by PowerBridge that forces the wires to go behind the wall.

*image taken from amazon*

It was a matter of cutting two rectangles into the wall, hooking up the wires, and mounting the TV to the wall. It was a quick, two person job, and I just love having the TV off of the table.

Now, what to do with our cable box, router, and wireless access point/back up hard drive? I was not a fan of how they looked sitting out under the table—it was a bit lackluster and too much metal going on.

It didn’t take but a minute to think of a solution—hide it in a pretty basket of some sort. Yet again I was off on another quest to Homegoods. While I liked the baskets, I was drawn to something else. You’ve all seen the boxes that look like books:

They were smaller than a basket, yet big enough for the things I needed hidden. They were also more sturdy and would allow me to stack one on top of the other.

The only thing I needed to modify was that I wanted air to circulate around the components. My lovely husband pointed out that it would be quite easy to cut the back side of the box, allowing plenty of air flow. I suppose you could do this with a handsaw (it might be hard to get a perfectly straight line), but he used our trusty jigsaw.