Easy Bulletin Board Decorating Ideas

I have had a vision board next to my desk for several years – it used to be a collection of pictures in a picture frame. I found that this was a very inefficient way to do this, because every time I wanted to change it, I had to take it down, take it apart, rearrange the photos, and put it back together. Needless to say, it was woefully out of date. I guess the good news about that is that I was happy to see that I had achieved almost all of my goals  set 2-3 years ago! But it wasn’t very inspiring because it wasn’t giving me anything to strive for anymore.

Yesterday I got a big cork bulletin board and hung it up. I needed cute thumbtacks and clips for it, though, because I’m not the kind of gal to put up boring stuff on my walls!  A few years ago I made some marble magnets based on the brilliance of Megan over at NotMartha – so it wasn’t too much of a stretch of the imagination to make thumbtacks instead. But I also have some photos that I didn’t want to poke a hole into, so I also made some coordinating clothespin clip tacks:

Although this project is a perfect tweens and teens craft, I must admit that I’m keeping these all to myself! My kids can make their own! They are super easy and fast to whip together.

Materials List for Cute Thumbtacks and Tack Clips

Scrapbook paper with a small-ish pattern

E6000 glass glue

Mod Podge

Flattened clear glass marbles

Flat head thumbtacks

Mini or regular size hinged wooden clothespins

How to Make the Clothespin Clips

I found mini 2 inch clothespins at JoAnn a few months ago – I pulled these out and measured the width carefully. Then I cut several strips of scrapbook paper at that exact width.

Scrapbook Paper Stips for Decoupage

I had to cut a lot of them, because the clothespins are really small, and I was picky about what pattern to decoupage onto the clothespins. If you have a smaller or repeating pattern, you won’t need nearly as many strips of paper as I did.

*NOTE – you may want to paint your clothespins in coordinating colors – if you want to do this, paint them and let them dry before going onto the next step.

Decoupage Clothespin Thumbtack Clips

-------------------- Advertisement --------------------

-------------------------------------------------------

Decide what parts of the paper you want on your clips, cut them to size, and then decoupage the paper onto the clip. I used glitter Mod Podge, so I also covered the sides of my clips with the Mod Podge. If you do this, make sure you don’t glue your clothespin shut!

Decoupage Clothespin Clips

While I let these dry, I started on my marble magnet thumbtacks. It’s too bad my office isn’t lit very well, because they are very sparkly and you can’t see that at all.

Marble Glass Bead Thumbtacks

I’ll let you go over to NotMartha to learn how to make the thumbtacks, but I will say this – getting the paper cut out just right for these is kind of a pain in the butt. I used a 3/4 inch circle hole punch, but the circles are just too big enough to look bad. So I have to trim the outside off, which makes my pretty perfect circles not pretty or perfect anymore.

Paper Cutouts for Marble Thumbtacks

The good news is that while in use, you can’t see that the paper doesn’t have perfect edges. The glass marbles have a magnifying effect on whatever image you choose, so the edges aren’t seen. You can only tell when you look at the back – so only you will know they are messed up!

Once your Mod Podge is dry on the clothespins and the glass glue is dry on the marbles, you can grab your hot glue gun to attach flat thumbtacks to the backs:

Glue Thumbtacks to the Backs

And then you are done!