Magnetic Bulletin Board

A small group of gal friends gather once a month to craft and share ideas.  Our March meeting was fast approaching and we were looking for a project and recently while perusing Pinterest I found this lovely project here and suggested it as our project for the month. It is a magnetic bulletin board using a standard cookie sheet, patterned scrap booking paper and cork board.  The instructions given at the Scrap Yard Chicks website are very thorough and she provides a complete supply list as well. 

What was nice about this project was that I had the majority of the supplies at home, I just had to pick up a cookie sheet, cork board, and some magnets.  The dollar store was my quick stop for the cookie sheet and while there I found some butterflies for what else a $1.  There were 3 in each package and various colors so I picked up a couple for my stash.  I tried the office supply store for the cork board and ending up finding it at Michael's.  They had a pack of 4 -12" squares which ensures I have extra pieces of cork board for other projects that I'm sure will come up. 

I'm not going to go into all the details of the making of sheet as you can find them over at the Scrapyard Chicks, but I will explain my changes to their design.  The sentiment across the top of the cookie sheet can be changed up to whatever you want, thus allowing many variations on this idea.   I decided to use my Cricut machine and the cartridge Graphically Speaking and chose the words "Life is Good."  I liked the idea of counting my blessings and having a positive statement on my board.  I cut one in black card stock and then a pink pearlized card stock at the same size.  I then cut a mat from a sheet of Tim Holtz' Grunge paper, more lightweight than chipboard but with some substance.  I mounted the pink on the grunge paper and inked up the edges with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo distress inks, then added ribbons and buttons on top of some of the letters.  When I mounted it I used pop dots to give the words some dimension and left the black version of the word as a shadow effect which you can see when you are closer to the board.  I put some of my buttons on magnets as well as the flowers.  I printed my calendar smaller so that there is more room on the board to stick up items with magnets.

The original instructions called for one cork board square cut down to fit the cookie sheet.  I found though that because most push pins are longer than conventional tacks that one layer was too shallow; so, I decided to double the cork board.  I inked around the edges with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo and Crushed Olive on the top piece and affixed the two pieces together. Then to hide the look of the cork board edges I took a length of the same ribbon I used on the cookie sheet at the seams, to wrap all the way around the edges of the cork board.  I took and glued the conventional tacks on the back of flowers with a button center and also to the back of the butterfly.

So when the ladies gathered to work on their cookie sheets they had some different takes on the original idea.  Some of them used Gesso or Mod Podge to create an opaque paint look around the edges and added some color to that.  Others used some clear contact paper to make a white board only with patterned scrapbook paper!  Great variations on the whole idea!  I can see this as a gift for a bride to be or a grandchild with a great variation on the theme, sports for kids or guys, hunting or fishing for men for Father's Day gifts, or maybe even an advent calendar for the holidays!

Here is a look at the complete project.  I punched two holes in the lip of the cookie sheet with my cropadile and added grommets and then threaded the grosgrain ribbon through the grommets and tied at the top.  I'm going to use a wreath holder over the edge of my cube at work to hold the board.

Until next time, Imagine, Create, and Enjoy!