French Memo Board

We managed to find some spare time over the summer holiday to do arts and crafts. In the U.S., we often made time to do intarsia and stained glass. With the new business taking up so much of our time, it’s rare that we have a spare moment to be creative. Last year, Erika gathered the materials for this project. So, what is it? I'm glad you asked...it’s a French memo board. We wanted an easy way to display our student’s pictures. It’s also a way for the other students to see who has joined Y.E.S.

The construction was straight forward. We used a cork board, fabric, batting, ribbon, and buttons. The tools we used were a staple gun, hot glue gun, scissors, hammer and a thick sewing needle. First, place the batting (5 layers) on the face of the cork board. Flip the board over. Staple and glue the batting in place.

Next, place the fabric over the batting. Stretch the fabric so that there are no wrinkles, but not too tight. You don’t want to bend the cork board. Flip the whole thing over. Staple and glue the fabric down. Neatly fold the corners so that there are no visible creases.

Figure out a pattern for the ribbon. Stretch the ribbon over the face of the fabric. Flip the cork board over and attach the ribbon with glue. At each ribbon intersection, attach a decorative button.

We used a thick, threaded needle to attach the buttons. The needle is pounded through the cork board with a hammer. The thread is pulled through the board and the button is pulled tight against the fabric. The thread is glued to the back of the board. That’s it!    George