{saturday craft: make an Inspiration Board, DIY}

Yesterday I shared how important having an Inspiration Board in your office or studio really is. The main reason for me is to help me see daily what my goals are for the business. I love to see where I’m at and how things change as the months go on. Today I’m here with a quick & easy tutorial… I’m REALLY excited to share with you the steps I took on making my Inspiration Board so you can make one and we can be I.B. twins ~ yay!

MATERIALS:
To get started, you’ll need 4 cut pieces of wood {my finished board measures 2′ x 3′, but yours can be any size you want}, paint, a paint brush, wire or string, and some sort of clip to hang your inspiring items.

STEP ONE: Once you decide what size to make your Inspiration Board, arrange the boards the way you want them to lay and start drilling {or nailing} them in. Zack pre-drilled the holes so the wood wouldn’t split. He also made sure the heads sat a little below the surface of the wood so nothing would stick out. STEP TWO: Grab your paint, your brush and the material you’ll use to hang your items from. I used wire, found at the neighborhood hardware store. I bought two tubes of paint but only used one full tube. Now I have an extra tube for another project, perfect!

*My paintbrush has angled tips so it was really easy to paint really close to the cracks without making any mistakes.

STEP THREE: Squirt a line of paint onto the wood. Make sure you work quickly, my paint dried pretty fast so it was important I wasn’t too messy. STEP FOUR: Be sure you apply an even coat, too. You can always go back in a few minutes and apply a second coat if you want a darker application.

STEP FIVE: I applied the paint to one board at a time. Pay attention to the sides of the boards, making sure you apply paint there as well {if you want to}. Work in even, consistent brush strokes so your Inspiration Board has a pretty coat of paint :] STEP SIX: Continue to paint the rest of the boards and sides until you have every visible surface colored.

STEP SEVEN: This is the easy part — let it dry! Maybe sip a yummy pumpkin-y drink while you wait :] STEP EIGHT: Prop your newly painted Inspiration Board and envision how far you’ll need to space the wire {for hanging your inspiring items}. Look at your board from a different angle… Really, this is hard work. Better take another sip of your yummy drink ;]

STEP NINE: This part was the most difficult step. I didn’t get any pictures of how I wrapped the wire because I didn’t have a spare arm to hold my camera, dang, but here’s how I did it —

I started at the top left side of the “frame” and wrapped the wire a few times around the left board. I gave myself about 4 extra inches of wire before I started wrapping it so I could twist it like you would when putting a twist tie around bag of bread. The wire was a little slippery so twisting it helped keep it secure.

Once it was secure on the left side, I stretched the wire over to the ride side of the board, wrapping it around the right side twice. Then I headed over to the left side, one loop around the board and then over to the ride board. I alternated between how many times around I wrapped the wire on left & right sides (once or twice). This give the finished board an inconsistent look, which I liked. The less perfect the better I felt about it. I also spaced out the wire as I made my way from two to bottom. This served two purposes: I didn’t want to run out of wire and I wanted there to be space to hang things without everything touching/overlapping.

When I got to the bottom of the frame I made sure I had a few extra inches of wire so I could wrap it around the left {or right?} side and then twist the remaining wire so it was secure. I also went back through and shimmied the wire down a little more so create even more space in between each “line” of wire. There are little kinks in the wire, which I LOVE! See? Perfection, it’s beautiful.

So here it is, my finished Inspiration Board hanging in my office:

Here’s a close up of the wire. You can see that some times it’s wrapped twice around the left & right sides and other times it’s wrapped just once. Right now my Inspiration Board has photos of Heather Bailey’s workspace, pretty flowers, orange pumpkins, lovely perfume bottles, an inspiring quote, a scrap of fabric and more. I’m really excited to add more things…

Maybe Zack will slip in an occasional love note? hint, hint

Let me know if you make one for your office or studio? I would love to see pictures! :]

*Wouldn’t a miniature Inspiration Board be so fun to make?! Like something that’s 2′ x 2′? Eeek, I may have to create a second board, just because.