Now that the holidays are over (sadly) and things have slowed down, I'd love to share with you guys some of the gifts I made for my loved ones. The first is a DIY cork board! But this isn't your average, square cork board - I wanted to make something more fun! My man's mom is a HUGE Cardinals fan, so I wanted to make her one for her office in the shape of the St. Louis Cardinals logo. My pictures show the steps for creating this board, but the awesome thing about this project is that the possibilities for the shapes really are endless! Get creative!

Here's what you'll need:

• Cork roll - the size of this will depend on how large you want your cork board to be
• Foam board or wooden cut out of design
• Exacto knife & scissors
• Sharpie
• Hot glue gun
• Craft paint, if needed - I'll explain later :)
• Picture hangers
• Small nails and hammer

Now you're ready to go!

After you've picked a shape for you board, you have a couple of options. You can either trace your design or free hand it on to the foam board. Another option would be to find a wooden cut out of your design. This would be a great option if you wanted to do a letter for your design; I know that Michaels and Hobby Lobby have tons of those wooden letters! Picking a wooden cutout would eliminate the most tedious part of creating the board, but making your own let's you be more creative. Here's my foam board after I free handed my design. *Tip: While you're doing these first steps, or even before if you can remember, roll out the square of cork board you'll be using, and flatten it out with heavy books or boxes. It's easier to work with when it's been flattened instead of having the edges curling up!

If you chose to use a wooden cut out, you can skip these next two steps. But for the rest of us, it's time to get the hardest and most time consuming part out of the way. To cut out my design, I used an Exacto knife. Scissors don't work very well on foam board, and the Excato allows you to get the perfect cut. I put a piece of cardboard under the spot I was cutting so I wouldn't cut into my table. I found that it was really helpful to prop a corner of the board up while I cut. It makes it easier to make sure you're getting all the way through the foam board the first time around. When you're cutting on a flat surface, it's sometimes hard to get all the way through, so then you have to go back and re-cut (I learned this the hard way). This step takes a while, so be patient! Another tip for cutting with the Exacto is to do small, up and down movements with it, don't just saw through. This will make your edges cleaner to give you a better cut!

Now the hardest part is over! Yay! Next you're just going to trace your design onto the cork roll, which has hopefully flattened out by now. Trace on the back of the design so that you can get as crazy as you want with the marker, and it won't show! After you get done tracing, cutting the design out of the cork roll is much easier than cutting it out of the foam board. You can use scissors for this part if you would like. I used scissors to cut parts of it and the Exacto knife to get the smaller spaces. Try to be gentle with the cork, and try to bend it as little as possible, because it can break off easily.

You're almost there! Now that you have both cutouts, it's time to glue them together. I used hot glue to hold my pieces together, and the board has held up great so far! Again, when gluing on the different parts of the cork, try to bend it as little as possible because it does break off easily! I had to glue on a couple little pieces separately because they broke off, and it looks fine, so don't panic if part of your cork does break.

Now, if you chose a wooden cutout, this won't pertain to you. But one thing I discovered that I wasn't expecting was the white from the foam board that was showing on the sides… yuck! I didn't want people to see that if they saw the side of the board while it was hanging on the wall, so I grabbed some regular craft paint, Cardinal red of course, to paint the white that was visible on the sides. It took a couple coats, but it looked so much better after I added it.

Finally, the last step! To hang the board on the wall, I attached a picture hanger to the board. I found these in my house, but I'm sure you can find them at Target or Walmart. The ones I had came with tiny nails, but if yours don't you should be able to find them at a hardware store, or even a friend's toolbox! Once you align the picture hanger, make sure it's centered to where the board will hang straight - this isn't always the middle of your design. If you are using foam board, it doesn't take much force at all to hammer in the nails.

And there you have it! Please leave any questions you have or any comments to make this tutorial better! I really appreciate feedback, especially since I'm brand new to the blogging world :) Happy crafting!

-Breezy