Craft Room: Creating a Custom Framed Cork Board

I've been needing a place to pin up my random thoughts and lists in my craft room. I had the perfect place above my desk, but I didn't want to go out and buy something because 1) cork boards can be expensive and 2) I wanted it to fit the space perfectly. So I bought a roll of cork and some red acrylic paint at HobLob, grabbed my Cutting Edge Stencils "Casablanca Allover" stencil that I won months ago from Lemon Tree Creations (thanks LTC girls!) - which is still destined to be used someday in the laundry closet - and went to work!

First, I used some painters tape to measure off the area I wanted my cork board to cover.

I taped down some kraft paper to protect my floors, cut the cork to the right size, and started stenciling! This is the first time I've ever stenciled anything and it went really fast. Such high impact for so little cost!

Here she is all done! But then I started thinking... hmm, this cork is awfully thin, I bet it's too thin to hold a pushpin. I tested it out and sure enough, unless I wanted tons of little holes in my wall If I ever decide to take this down, I was going to have to do something to remedy this problem. (Seriously Cork Board Manufacturers, what is the point of making cork too thin to hold a pushin?)

Enter:  foam core! I taped three sheets together, then used construction adhesive to glue the cork on top of it. Sorry, no pictures of that!

I removed the tape from the wall and used double-sided foam tape to adhere my fabulous new cork board. Then weeks went by...

Until the other day when I finally got Steven to help me drag some leftover molding* out of the basement. We measured it out and used a hand saw to cut it down. I bought the decorative squares at Lowes so I didn't have to do any mitered corners - so much easier, and cuter, I think! I spray painted all the molding white, attached it to the wall with more double sided foam tape (I didn't want to have to fill any nail holes!), and voila! You could see the unfinished edges of the cork so I just added some pink ribbon tacked on with thumbtacks, and a couple little flowers to tie the pink and red together.

Now I can pin things up to my heart's content! I just love it!

*In the US, the trim that goes around doors, on walls, etc is spelled "molding". In Australia, the UK and Canada, it's spelled "moulding". You wouldn't write "My favourite colour of moulding is white." You would write "My favorite color of molding is white." Just a little something that gets on my nerves because I see people spell it "moulding" all. the. time. We're Americans people - we don't put u's in unnecessary places! Okay, tirade over for today.