Memo Board and More Fun Projects

Before Lindsey moved in, I shared how we'd decorated her room, but we allowed for plenty of personal touches, and now that all her stuff is here, we've started working on some of those personal touches. We printed our first family photo with all three kids, and put that in a hot pink picture frame that sits on her dresser.

I ordered a vinyl lettering verse online a few weeks ago, but had put it away until we figured out if Lindsey liked the purple color of her room. Ken and I believed this was a wonderful verse for her, and after a conversation where Lindsey stated that she know it was God's plan for her to be part of our family, I went and got the box this came in and showed it to her. At her suggestion, we rearranged her furniture so it could be where she wanted it and still be right above the head of her bed. I love it!Our next creative project was another photo frame. We had a wooden picture frame, and got the idea that it would be cool to paint it zebra striped. So I lightly sanded and primed it, then Lindsey painted it with the same lavender wall paint as the walls in her room, then painted a black border next to the photo opening. After all of that dried, I free-handed some zebra stripes on it. I didn't have any black paint other than spray paint, so I just sprayed that into a paper cup, and dipped it out with a little paint brush. I've never painted anything zebra before, so I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Lindsey chose a photo Ken took on the 4th of July to put in it. Cute, huh? I'd mentioned making a french memo board, and Lindsey loved the idea, so we went to Hobby Lobby this weekend to pick out fabric and ribbon. After considering many possible combinations, Lindsey chose a hot pink fabric and zebra-striped grosgrain ribbon. These are so easy to make, and the only way to have a totally unique memo board.

To make your own, you'll need:

• a stretched canvas (ours is 16 x 20)
• fabric (we bought 1 yd so we'd have extra)
• ribbon (we used a whole 15ft roll
• quilt batting
• staple gun (with staples, of course!)
• sawtooth hanger

Just cut the quilt batting and fabric with enough room to wrap around to the back. We left about 4 inches on each side. Lay the fabric face down on a flat work surface, then place batting on top, and place the canvas on top of that. Fold over the edge of the fabric and batting, pull tightly, and staple to the wooden frame on back of the canvas. Do this on one side, pull tightly & do on the opposite side, then repeat with the remaining two sides. Flip it over, lay out your ribbon and cut with enough left to pull around and staple on the back. Do one ribbon at a time until it's just the way you want. Attach the sawtooth hanger so you have a way to hang it on the wall.

We have another project on it's way from a blogland friend in Texas and Lindsey is super-excited about it. I'll share when it arrives. {grin}