How to Make a French Memo Board

I've always liked the look of french memo boards and I wanted to use them to hold old sepia colored photographs of my fiance and I's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents on their wedding days. Since I'm VERY detail-oriented, I wanted the french memo boards to match with our wedding colors. So, I decided to make them myself with supplies my fiance and I picked up at Michael's (I owe him!!). Turns out, they're not too difficult to make! In fact, I spent more time in the craft store choosing the fabric and buttons than creating all three french memory boards! (P.S. I ended up returning all of the buttons the next day and replacing them with pressed flowers for a more formal and elegant look!)

Here's how to make a french memo board and how my final project turned out!

How to Make A French Memo Board:

Materials for a 16x20" french memo board:

-16x20" stretch canvas on stretcher bars
-1 yard of fabric for each board

-Quilt batting, about 20x24"
-6 yards of 1/2 inch ribbon (I used satin, but gross grain ribbon works great, too)

-5 buttons (optional)
-Needle and thread to sew the buttons on

-Scissors

-Staple gun and staples

Instructions:
1. Place the canvas face down on top of the quilt batting. Cut the quilt batting around the canvas leaving about 3-5 inches on all sides. (The batting I used was thin, so I folded it in half so it would have extra padding covering the canvas.)

2. Fold the edges over the sides of the canvas like you're wrapping a gift and staple it to the wooden part of the canvas. Be sure that the batting is nice and tight. Tim the excess batting.
3. Do the same with the fabric. Place the batting-covered canvas on top of the fabric and cut around the canvas leaving about 3-5 inches around the edge. Fold in the edges like you're wrapping a gift and use the staple gun to staple the fabric to the wooden area of the canvas. Trim the excess fabric.
4. Attach the ribbon. Measure out 2 pieces of ribbon that will reach from one corner of the memo board to the opposite corner, then make a big "X" with the ribbons on the memo board. After attaching the two pieces of ribbon to form the "X" using your staple gun, measure out 4 more pieces of ribbon that will reach from the middle of one side of the memo board to the middle of the adjacent side. These pieces of ribbon will ultimately form a diamond around the "X".

5. Attach the buttons using needle and thread if desired. I used a hot glue gun to attach dry flowers to place where the ribbons cross.

6. Disply your pictures! (I haven't finished arranging and displaying my pictures, but I stuck these in for show!)I made two french memo boards with blue fabric and wine colored ribbon and one larger french memo board with wine fabric and blue ribbon. I think I might use the larger memo board to display our guests' favorite memories of us. Later, we'll have our maid of honor and best man read a couple of the best ones outloud for everyone to hear (...and probably get a laugh out of!). We think it will be a nice way to involve our friends and family in our day.