the cure for bulletin boredom?

(a post with the worst photos EVER...for which i apologize, but this thing is big--2' x 3'--and it was hard to just fit the whole thing in the frame!)

a couple of weeks ago my sister mentioned that miss madeline has been wanting a bulletin board for her bedroom. the problem wass that the ones they've seen in the stores fall into two categories: fancy and small...or large and plain; whereas maddie has loads of artwork and treasures to display, but an ordinary corkboard just will not do! i could see this was a case where crafty aunt lauren needed to come to the rescue with a birthday present fit for a princess!

i bought the biggest plain-framed corkboard at wallmart, which i fancied up by covering it with pretty pink and silver filigree handmade paper from pearl paint in new york. (i used my xyron to apply nice strong adhesive all over the back of the paper, then cut it into small pieces--about 5" x 2"--to apply them easily and neatly to the frame.) i used a few yards of white trim from a sewing shop to cover the inside edges, and make the whole thing look a bit more finished.

for a little extra drama, i bought some wooden door-frame decorations at lowe's to go on the top and the bottom of the frame. these i painted with fuschia acrylic paint and pearly glaze, and i enlisted lovely husband jeff's expert carpentry help to affix them to the bulletin board with small brass screws, which i covered with tiny pink kaiser pearls. a few florals and rhinestone flourishes made a nice accent at the top and the board was finished!



of course, i could've stopped there, but that's an awful lot of cork to leave undecorated, even temporarily, so i thought a little photo collage might brighten things up:

one thing proud aunties have in spades are loads of "extra" photo prints, so i took a few of my faves featuring miss madeline and made a little grouping. this is when i realized that a fancy bulletin board needed some fancy push pins! as it turns out, prima flowers hot-glued to regular old thumbtacks look pretty good, and they look even better with a pink rhinestone in the center! finally i cut a few over-sized letters out of patterned paper...just so there would be no question as to whose board this is!!! :)