Padded notice board/pinboard tutorial

I didn't find much by way of picture tutorials when I took a cursory glance through a google search.  I'm sure there are millions of tutorials out there in blogland but google didn't throw one up that I wanted to follow, so I winged it. I had a fair idea of what I needed to do as I'd watched one of my Swine girls make one last year.




Supplies needed are as follows:

Staple gun and staples
scissors
iron and ironing board
Plywood or chip board cut to the size you want the notice board to be. Don't use MDF the staples and tacks wont go in.
Wadding
Fabric
Ribbon
String
Upholstery tacks
Hanging hook things to thread the string through (someone tell me what they are called so I can edit this please!)
Picture hook

Make sure you have enough wadding and two bits of fabric, one to cover the front so it needs to be 3 inches larger than the board all around and one for the back of the board allowing a couple of inches extra all around. You'll need plenty of ribbon, it's deceptive how much you'll use.

Cut the wadding to fit the board.

My wadding was a funny shape as it was left over from another project so I did a bit of jigsawing.

Iron your fabric and lay it wrong side up on a hard surface. Lay the wadding centrally on top and them pop the board on top of the lot.

Pull the fabric up from one side over the back of the board and put two or three staples along the middle section. then pull taught and staple the opposite side. repeat with the two remaining sides.

It'll look like this:

To make neat corners fold the pointy corner in towards the opposite corner and staple it down.

Then fold the side over, pulling it taught and staple...

... repeat with the other side

 And Viola! Nice neat corner. Do the remaining three corners.

Now get your ribbon and pin it on in an arrangement that suits you. I should have used more visible pins for this picture.

Flip the board over and staple the ribbons to the back, don't pull too tightly, just snug enough so that they aren't floppy and loose. Remove the pins from the front.

Place the tacks on the areas where the ribbons cross and push them in so they start to go through the fabric, this stops them slipping when you hammer them in. A piece of card placed between the tack and the hammer protects the top of the tack from being damaged when you whack it. You shouldn't have to bang very hard for them to go though the fabric and wadding and into the board.

Take the piece of fabric for the back and lay it on top of the back of the board, fold over the surplus so that you'll have a neat edge and but enough fabric to cover up all the staples you used. You can either staple this to the board or glue the fabric down (or not bother with it at all as it won't show when hung on a wall)

Mark on the back where you want to place the hangy (help) things, I banged a nail in a little to make some pilot holes to screw them into.

Shove the end of a fine screwdriver in to help you tighten them if, like me, you've no pliers and weak fingers.

Tie the string through the hangy things (!)

Oh lookie! My picture hook has a little heart on it. Seems a shame to hide it with the notice board.

You're done! Easy hey? Really didn't need a tute did ya?!

If anyone follows this and has any helpful additional tips (or spots any typo's) let me know and I'll edit this and link to you. Also if anyone does one of these and would like me to list it here with a link then let me know.  I might even do one of those linky party whatsit's I've seen around blogland. Oooooh get me!!!

xxx