Making a necklace/picture board - the quick and...

As promised, here's the instructions on how I made a necklace/picture board. I'm using mine to keep my necklaces untangled as well as to display some ACEOs that I've traded for or purchased. For me, this was very much a project about using what I had on hand--the only thing I bought was the ribbon, and that was only because I only had black ribbon around the apartment at the time.

You will need:

- Uncut photo mat board. Any color is fine, but it needs to be uncut. I believe I used an 11 x 17 piece, but any size works.

- 1 inch thick styrofoam insulation. You could also use 1 inch thick corkboard, but you need something for the screws and tacks to anchor into. Cut about 1 inch smaller in both dimensions than the mat board.

- 1/4 inch wide ribbon. About half a standard sized spool.

- Tacks (flat and the kind with a part to grip)

- 3-4 screw-in cup hooks or regular screws (at least 1/2 inch screw portions)

- Adhesive of some sort. I used staples, because I'm lazy. Hot glue would also work, and you could use tacks as well.

Instructions:

I started out by criss-crossing the ribbon across the surface of the matboard, stapling near the edges as I went. Personally, I left the ends of the ribbon loose, because I liked how that looked, but you could also use hot glue to attach the loose ends to the back of the board, and then you wouldn't have to worry about the staples snagging the ribbon. You can put as much or as little ribbon as you like--I wanted mine to have a lot of spaces for ACEOs, as my collection is ever growing.

I then used the screw-in cup hooks to anchor the mat board to the styrofoam. I put two at the top corners and one in the bottom center, but that was because I only had 3 cup hooks. With 4, you could put one at each corner.

Then I put a row of thumbtacks with the part you can grab across the top of the board, going through the matboard and into the styrofoam. Try to space these evenly, though that's not required.

Finally, I took flat thumbtacks and pushed those through the ribbon whereever it crossed. This helps to keep the ribbon on the board a little better, and also makes little rests for your pictures. I also liked how it dressed up the design of the board.

Now, in my case, this was just the right width to balance across two drawers on my antique vanity. Other people might want to mount this to the wall, but I haven't figured out how to do that part. I think if you wanted to make a wall-mounted version, you might be better off using a corkboard instead of styrofoam insulation.