Back to School Craft #4!

Given that back-to-school time was always my favorite time of the year, I am reclaiming my participation in it. But with my own crafty twist. Monday kicks off Back to School Week 2010 here on I Wanna Be A Domestic Goddess. Each day Monday through Friday, I will feature one practical "back to school" do-it-yourself craft project that you can use at the office, in your dorm room, or in your home office. All of these crafts are easy (seriously, I did all five of them in under 3 hours) and do not require a ton of supplies if you have a few crafty items on hand.

I have a serious corkboard addiction. I have tiles of them hanging in my closet where I pin up outfits from magazines that give me fashion inspiration. I have tiles of them hanging in my crafting armoire where I pin up craft projects that I want to try. I have tiles of them in hanging in my kitchen cupboards where I pin up recipes that I want to try. Really, corkboard dominates my world.

But my office cubicle poses a small challenge in that I cannot really hang anything from its cloth walls except with these weird little pin hooks. That probably would not hold up a corkboard. So I began searching for an alternative to hanging up corkboard. I was wandering through Homegoods one day and walked into the picture frame aisle and my brain began a-whirling and a-twirling. What if I made a standing corkboard? And that my friends, it today's craft project.

Supplies you will need:

• Corkboard tiles (these will be cheapest at Wal-Mart and Target. Office supply stores seriously mark these up.)
• Picture frame, any size or shape.
• Piece of ironed fabric at least as big as the picture frame opening
• Hot glue

Remove glass from frame and throw away/recycle/whatever.  Take whatever else filling is inside the picture frame--matting, picture of a faux family, whatever--this will be your stencil for getting the right size of the frame opening. Trace it onto the corkboard with a marker or pen.

Cut out the corkboard. Corkboard cuts cleaner than you would expect.

Now trace the cut-out corkboard onto the fabric.

Cut out the fabric shape.

Apply hot glue to the border of the corkboard.

Working from top to bottom, smooth the fabric onto the corkboard.

Place the covered corkboard fabric-side up into the frame.

And now I have a standing corkboard for my desk! Well, currently, it is on my kitchen counter but it will get to my office soon enough.

I also made this little round corkboard that I have hanging above my desk.

So cute, right?