Inspiration Board Before & After

 have been wanting to make an inspiration board for my craft room.  I'm a very visual person and I wanted a place I could post all those ideas I clip out of magazines, find online or think up on my own. It needed to be large so it could hold lots of photos and ideas.  It also needed to be cheap to make. 

Last Saturday while hitting yard sales with my hubby and parents, I found this huge frame. It measures 4' x 3'. I dug it out of a pile of frames and decided it was definitely large enough, but was the price right?  Yep...it was only 50 cents!!!  I threw two quarters at the lady and ran to the truck before she realized I'd just ripped her off.  : )

When I got it home, my Dad pointed out that it smelled terrible...like it'd been sitting in a cigarette-smoke filled lounge or something.  I left it outside a few days to air out, then brought it in, Febrezed the heck out of it, primed it and painted it.  My plan was remove the fabric, but upon closer inspection, I found that it was glued to the board and the board was nailed to the frame.  Removing it would ruin the frame and board.  Plan B (not so) quickly formed.  I used 4 sheets of cardboard, covered them with fabric from my stash and hot glued them in place. I alternated a polka dot, stripes and floral print. It's not perfect, but as the Nester says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. (The frame doesn't say natural nester on it, by the way, but maybe when my Silhouette arrives?)

Total Project Cost:

Frame: 50 cents

Fabric: Free (from my stash)

Primer and Paint: Free (from my stash)

Cardboard: Free (leftover from a school project)

I haven't hung this beauty up in my studio yet.  I'm still working on organizing it, but all of that is for another post. Now I'm just going to go stare at my thrifty bulletin board and gloat at saving mega-bucks!




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