em-belle-ish: Sports Themed Bulletin Board Tutorial

The Before... a garage sale find.

The finished product.

This was the product that I had to shop for. We chose the blue can of contact cement because it was good for both foam, paper, and fabric. We spent a bit of time reading all the different cans, but it was worth it. It cost just under $10.

We used foam board because I had it on hand. I originally planned on using metal in order to make it a magnet board, but in the end with with the foam. We plan to staple the items onto the board, so I think the foam board will stand up to that. In order to cover the entire surface of the original painting, I needed to use 3 panels. I centered a full panel and then trimmed the other 2 and placed them on either side.

I upholstered the center panel with some sports themed flannel. I used a standard stapler, nothing heavy duty, but it did the job.

I had a denim duvet cover on hand that I took apart in order to repurposed the fabric for this project. The seam detail was original to the duvet so I cut the fabric to utilize this detail as a "seam" to "join" the panels on the bulletin board.

My simple upholstery method : pull the fabric tight over the panel and staple in place. Easy peasy :) I did iron the flannel piece of fabric before upholstering in order to create a smooth surface to start with. The denim looked fine, so I skipped this step.

I wanted to add some original detail so I cut up a pair of levis and repurposed the back pocket with the red tab.

Voila, a handy pin or mini stapler holder. I attached the pocket to the panel with a glue gun.

I painted over the original gold coloured frame with Christmas Red DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic. I used almost 2 bottles of paint (2 US fl oz or 59 ml / bottle). After the paint dried, I distressed with a bit of dark brown shoe polish applied with a rag.

My sweet husband works with this type of product at work, so he volunteered to do this step for me. Using an old paintbrush he applied cement to the entire back of each panel following the directions on the can. He was sure to apply generous amounts around the edges of each panel as well as over the entire painting. He let it all dry and then stuck them together. He says there is no wiggle room- once you stick it it's stuck forever. :)