Fabric Covered Cork Board with Felt Flower

-Products used in this project provided by Darice, Cricut, and Plaid-

Do you ever have projects that you start and then set aside and it takes months before you actually get around to finishing the project? Then when you finally get around to finishing the end project is completely different than the idea you actually started with? This project is one of those for me, but now that I have actually finished it I really like the way it turned out.

I had originally gotten a plain bulletin board about a year ago thinking I would do something to it to make it a little prettier and then give it to my oldest daughter as a Christmas present. I thought that she would like to have someplace to stick her drawings and notes.

I painted the frame pink and although I really tried to cover the cork part and only paint the frame I accidentally dropped my paintbrush and got a big smear of paint on the cork board. I also had a hard time getting the inside edges and corners without getting a little paint on the board. I was not at all happy with how it turned out so it got set aside and sort of forgotten about.

Fast forward several months and I received a big box of crafty awesomeness in the mail from Plaid. In the box were several different types of Mod Podge, including Fabric Mod Podge, as well as lots of pretty colors of paint. I got the idea to use the Fabric Mod Podge to cover the cork with fabric and to add some flowers to the frame.

I chose fabric and a new paint color, a pretty blue color. I repainted the frame, this time not worrying about getting paint on the frame because I knew I would be covering it up. I used Mod Podge to cover the cork with my fabric. And then I set it aside, and kind of forgot about it. It was so close to being finished but I just didn't do it.

A couple weeks ago my Mom and my sisters came over to surprise my girls with a fun room makeover. They were so excited to have their pretty new room. My 10 year old had gotten some little notes from a church activity where people had written nice qualities that they see in her. They obviously meant a lot to her so she had pinned them up on her wall next to her bed. Here was her nicely put together room with neon index cards pinned up all over the wall. I decided it was time to finish her bulletin board and give her a cute place to put all of her little notes and pictures.

I finished the board, added a big pink felt flower to the corner and added all of her little notes to the board. I think it turned out so cute, definitely an improvement from pushpins on the wall.

How to Make a Fabric Covered Cork Board with Felt Flower

You will need:

• A plain framed cork board, mine was 12" x 16"
• paint for the frame in desired color, I used Folk Art Texture Chalk Paint in Paradise
• a flat paintbrush
• fabric that is large enough to fit the inside of your board, for this size a fat quarter or 1/3 yard will both work, I used the floral print from Cricut's On Trend Sampler
• Fabric Mod Podge
• Foam Brush
• Cricut Maker with rotary blade and fabric mat
• felt in desired colors, I used the Cricut Sky Sampler
• glue gun with glue sticks

Instructions:

Start by painting your cork board frame. Use the flat brush to paint the frame. Because you will be covering the cork with fabric it is ok if a little paint gets on the cork around the edges. 

Next measure the inside of your cork board and cut the fabric to fit. It is better to cut a little bit big because you could always trim it with a craft knife, than to cut too small.

Use the foam brush to brush the Fabric Mod Podge onto the cork and place the fabric on top, covering the entire cork surface. If there are places that need to be trimmed you can use a craft knife to trim them to fit. Let dry and then brush a layer of Fabric Mod Podge over the top of the fabric. Let that layer dry.

Open this Design Space file for the peony, or find a felt flower design that you would like to use. Cut the pieces out of felt using the rotary blade. 

To make the peony design that I used you will have a total of 6 flower petal pieces, 2 leaves, and a center (the picture shows a strip but it will actually be a circle, I changed the piece after I took the picture.

Start by taking the two flowers with lots of petals and glue one on top of the other (one is slightly smaller and that one will go on top), attach them so that the petals are staggered.

Next take the 2 larger 3 petal flowers and glue the tab behind the petal next to it. Then glue them to the center of the flower, again gluing them so that they are staggered. 

Take the smaller pieces and glue the tabs behind the petal they are attached too to curve the petals. Then glue them in the center of the rest of the flower. 

Glue the yellow circle to the center of the flower. 

Glue the tab on the leaf to the back of the leaf. 

Glue the flower and leaves to the corner of the frame.