A cute idea for a bulletin board using a capital letter
Want a great capital letter bulletin board with chicken wire? Capital letters of people’s first or last names seem to be in vogue for homes. I was just blessed to move to near Boise, Idaho in an adorable farmhouse. I wanted to use the capital letter of our last name idea for a bulletin board in my kitchen. I perused all the hobby and craft stores and didn’t find quite what I wanted so I decided to make one of my own. Keeping chickens means I have chicken wire around and I knew I wanted to incorporate it into my project. So I ordered the capital letter “M,” a roll of corkboard, a roll of burlap and cut a small piece of chicken wire for my bulletin board project.
Here’s how I made my capital letter bulletin board.
Materials needed:
- Capital letter
- A ½” roll of corkboard
- A roll of burlap or other preferred material
- Chicken wire
- A decorative flower or doo dah for your board/or material to make your own
- Small clothespins
- Pushpins
- Cutting pliers
- Scissors
- Glue
- Modge Podge
- Staple gun & staples
I made my own burlap flower with a fried egg center
The first thing I did was cut out strips of color-coordinating ribbon to make a burlap flower for a burst of color on my bulletin board. After cutting it out and sewing the pieces together, I found a fried egg bead to go along with chicken wire them to make the center of my flower and sewed it on. Now again, as stated in the materials list you can buy a burlap or other silk flower, a string of beads, or some decorative piece that matches a theme to the room you will be placing the bulletin board. I then set this aside for later attachment.
Take your capital letter and trace it to the 1/2″ thick cork board with a felt tip marker. Note: you do not have to have cork board on your bulletin board if you are not using pushpins. I wanted the flexibility of both pushpins and clothespins on mine. Once you have traced the letter, carefully cut it out and use craft glue to adhere it to your capital letter. It is best to leave this to dry for at least an hour so the cork board is stuck well when you begin the rest of the process. I place a heavy book on top to make sure the sides would stick well as the cork came in a roll and still wanted to curl up from the edges.
The cork glued to the capital letter
While the cork was drying to the letter, I decided to get out coordinating colors from my acrylic paints and paint my mini clothespins.These mini clothespins can be found already painted but I could only find primary colors so I painted my own to match my kitchen colors and so the bulletin board had little pops of color on the burlap material.
When my cork board glue was dry, I rolled out the burlap and cut a piece plenty big enough for over lapping the capital letter. Now here’s the skinny on cutting the burlap to fit your capital letter. If you have a name that starts with uncomplicated letters like C, I, L, O, T, etc., you are blessed. The “M” is not so easy.
Burlap cut to wrap around the letter
These angles made adhering the burlap more difficult so I ended up using Modge Podge to keep the fraying down and smooth down these edges
I cut as carefully as I could to allow for extra burlap material to fold over the sides of the letter to the back. Again, a little more complicated with the letter “M.” I used the staple gun while stretching and adjusting the burlap for a close fit.The inside angles of the letter “M” were definitely harder to not only secure but also have enough burlap to use. I realized right away that more than stapling would be required for those angles.
In comes the idea of Modge Podge. I used it to secure the shorter insides angles of the letter. Burlap frays easily and this was key to prevent further fraying and attach it securely to the letter angles. I’ll tell you right off, I worked with it for a while. I had a tongue depressor/craft stick that I was using and finally decided my fingers would be better, albeit covered in glue when I was finished. After working with it to get the frays secured and the burlap completely attached, I left it overnight to dry so as not to repeat the Modge Podge mess again.
I had already cut a piece of chicken wire to overlap and fit my capital letter. This was still a little tricky because of the inside letter angles. gI carefully used my plier cutters to shape the wire and stapled it as I went. You want to be sure to carefully staple as this part will be against your wall and could either scratch your paint or be too bulky to hang. If you look closely at the first photo above, you will see I left the chicken wire across the angle on top of the “M.” I wanted to have plenty of chicken wire to pin things to by leaving this bit of extra chicken wire.
So there you have it, a capital letter bulletin board with cork, burlap and chicken wire. I hope your capital letter is a little easier to work with than mine, but it came out so cute!
