How to Make a Memory Board?

Memory Boards

Personalized Memory Boards made Cheap

I hit a new stage in my life, the creative I-Can-Do-This-Myself stage. Why buy when I can create and personalize it to my own needs? Maybe my time spent in front of a sewing machine or thrift store are bound to change as I reenter the workforce again but weekend projects are still easy and fun to fulfill. Memory boards are a good day project and relatively easy to do. What's great about doing it yourself is the opportunity to pick your own fabric, design and features.

Take for instance the memory board I created for my daughter. Memory boards don't have to be limited to one board, I did a collaboration of 6 small boards covered in batting and fitted with fabric of my chose. I left 2 boards plain because the designs itself was overpowering enough. I made one board a hair clip board by sewing in 3 strains of ribbon and tacky gluing cute buttons to the end to keep the ribbon taunt. On another board I sew a pocket in that can be used for small books or loose papers. The other boards had ribbon differently arranged with clips to hold pictures. 2 clips had matching elephant fabric tacky glued on to tie in the boards.

What you need:

-Plywood boards (even strong cardboard could be a substitute!)

-Fabric

-Batting

-Scissors

-Accessories (buttons, clips, anything you want to incorportate onto your board)

-Tacky glue or staple gun

1.)  Find a piece or pieces of plywood board that you would like to work from.  I used Baltic Birch Plywood 1/8" x 12" x 12" that I purchased off Amazon but you can also try your local hardware store.  The surface is very smooth and looks cleaner than regular plywood.

2.) Cut out fabric and batting to the shape of the plywood squares and tacky glued on, although stapling could be done was well but I'm not sure how it holds up on plywood.  Once you have everything glued or stampled down then you can look at your boards and decide what features you want them to have.  I love putting up pictures so I made 2 squares dedicated to clipping pictures up.  We also had some hair clips floating around my daughter got as baby shower gifts but she's been blessed with being bald I didn't want to lose them so I made hair clip ribbons.  The only sewing needed is if you wanted to sew on a pocket or little added features but most can be done with just a glue/staples.

Here's a finished product customized to fit my/daughters needs:

 

For hanging purposes I glued a ribbon across the back to hang up from the nail.

Framed Memory Boards

Other Beautiful Examples of Memory Boards for a room

(and cheap!)...

Done the same way but put into a frame (with the glass removed)...perfect way to find new use to an old frame sitting around the garage.  You can get the frame the color you want by purchasing cheap paint or spray paint.

Here's one of my framed memory boards:

NO GLUE OR STAPLES NEEDED!

Its used in the kitchen for small notes.

This is what it use to be. I loved the frame I got it for fairly cheap off Amazon but the glass broke during a move.

I took the glass out and measured the batting out. 

I put fabric over the batting and put the back on.  I pulled the extra fabric hanging off the back to make the fabric tight and not look so wrinkly.  Once I got the fabric and ribbon as I tight as I could get it I pushed the rest of the back in and cut the fabric off the back.

Check out my other posts on how to create and design on a budget