Pieces of wonderful

Project of the day number 2 is an idea that could work for anyone. Once again, it came from a sudden desire to change something in my kitchen, but the results are quite pleasing.

If you have one of these cork notice boards then you might know how ugly they are. I have one in my kitchen and while staring at the horrid brown tones of the cork beneath all my collections of cards and pictures I decided it could be so much more attractive and so here is my solution to a boring, ugly notice board.

I used one of the downloadable wallpapers from the  Cath Kidston site:

I chose this one, but there are plenty of others out there, they don't need to be Cath Kidston. I printed 4 sheets- 3 for the main body of the board and one to cut up and fill in the gaps at the bottom. Take care to match up the images so it looks perfect. Start by working along the top, place the three sheets vertically side by side. Use glue, tape of pins to affix them. If you are working with a regular rectangular board then you will be left with a strip of bare board at the bottom. Fill this in by cutting the 4th sheet and doing a little jigsaw work.

And once all the cork is filled you will have created a lovely background for your important notes, messages and reminders and no more horrible cork brown. The wood is also un-varnished on most of these kinds of boards so you can paint them in whatever colour or pattern that you wish. Mine looks a little something like this:

Now, instead of that brown colour behind my postcards and letters I have vintage roses peaking through and when I get a second I will paint the frame in a pretty, shabby chic colour to match the print.

I also made a little pocket using a different print where I can keep all my letters and notes:

This was fairly easy to make, I cut the paper vertically a little bit further than half way down. I folded in the sides and the bottom and attached pins at all four corners underneath the folds but not through the front.

Next I attached the pouch starting with the bottom corners:

Fold the pouch upward and attach the top two corners for your finished product. I attached a doily frill trim to mine for extra embellishment and I'm very happy with the results. Not at all bad for some spontaneous DIY-ing on a Sunday.

I also made a skirt from an old dress simply by cutting along the waistband and made some paper bunting from some printable wallpapers and some more of the Cath Kidston desktop wallpapers. Phew!

It just shows that it is always worth remembering that before you get rid of something, consider upcycling it to make it exciting, new and improved!