The Winged Heart

When we first moved into our new apartment, I decided one of the first things we needed was a bulletin board for things like bills, stamps, chinese takeout menus, and coupons.  We were pretty strapped for cash though, and it seemed like the sort of mass-produced item that would be annoying to have bought, so I decided to make one myself.  We had a lot of cardboard lying around from moving, and that seemed like good enough bulletin board material to me!  I also had some really beautiful lime-patterned cardboard from a box from Piperlime that I thought would make the board more attractive than just plain brown cardboard.  I also ended up making a necklace hanger out of the same cardboard for our bedroom.  It took some time and experimentation, but I ended up with what I think is a really nice looking and functional bulletin board which we use frequently!  I didn’t take any photos of the process, but I’m posting the materials and steps so you can make your own!  This is designed to nail directly onto a wall, so it’s not very portable and you can’t hang it on your fridge or anything.

Materials:

• Corrugated cardboard (enough to make 3 layers in your desired bulletin board size)
• Utility knife or scissors
• Glue (I used white school glue, crazy glue might work as well)
• Hammer and nails for hanging
• Push pins

Process:

Step 1: Decide how big you want your bulletin board to be.  I made mine 24 inches by 13 inches, though mine was split up into two equally sized pieces since the lime-print cardboard wasn’t very big.  I didn’t try to glue the two pieces together, I just nailed them up right next to each other to create the illusion of a large board.

Step 2: Cut 3 layers of cardboard in the size you decided in Step 1.  For me, it took 3 layers of cardboard to be thick enough that a push pin didn’t go through all of the layers and  come out of the back, so if your cardboard is thicker you might not need 3 layers.  If any of your layers end up smaller than the others, they are better suited for the back layers.  If you don’t have any patterned cardboard, try covering the front piece with fabric, decorative paper, or paint.  Hold up one of the pieces where you plan to hang the board and make sure the size is good.

Step 3: Glue all of the layers together.  Make sure that the front piece looks good, and that none of the back pieces are sticking out from behind.  I glued two layers first and then added the third layer last.  Make sure the glue goes the edges of the board and that you use enough glue to adhere the pieces well.  Stack some heavy books on top while the glue dries for extra adhesion!

Step 4: You’re done!  You can add any other decorations or trim you want to the bulletin board, or if ti looks good you can just hang it up.  Use a hammer and small nails to hang your new bulletin board on the wall.  I put a nail in each corner, and in the middle on top and bottom.  Use pushpins to hang up bills, coupons, stamps, keys, and other things you don’t want to lose!  I don’t recommend hanging anything too heavy on this, since it is just cardboard.  Also, if you use it for a long time, the board might lose its… “push-pinability”, per se.  Cardboard isn’t like cork board, so it might become unusable if there are too many holes in it.  It’s not bad for a free bulletin board made of used materials though!