Skillfully Waiting

My friend's due date has come and gone... and still there is no baby.  To help pass the time, we decided to be crafty and make our own custom picture ribbon board.  A ribbon board is a plush, fabric-covered board with criss-crossing ribbons between which you can display photos and other momentos without the need for tacks or tape.  We took a trip to Michael's craft store and JoAnn Fabrics to buy the necessary supplies.  We collected fabric, plush batting, ribbon, buttons, a staple gun and staples, canvas stretcher bars, scissors, a sewing needle, thread, and a tape measure.

Canvas stretcher bars are sold separately, allowing you to buy the 4 sides in the lengths of your choice.  We chose to make our ribbon board 20 x 30 inches.  I decided to use stretcher bars for this project (rather than the typical bulletin board) because it is easier to customize the size and the overall project weighs a lot less.

First we fit the stretcher bars together and stapled them at the joints.  Next, we tightly stetched our base fabric over the frame and stapled it into place.

Next we stretched and stapled the plush batting into place, trimming the corners to keep the batting flat.

We cut and ironed the top fabric before we stretched and stapled it into place, leaving enough overhang to tuck under the bars for a more finished look.

Arranging the ribbon took some work.  After much rearranging and measuring, we finally figured it out BUT we ran out of ribbon!  We had to make another trip to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up more.  The ribbon was cut to size and stapled to the back of the frame.

Next we sewed buttons at each intersection of ribbon.  We picked some decorative buttons of varied sizes for the front and plain white buttons for the back.  We sewed the front and back buttons to each other through the fabric, pulling tightly to create a slight puckered look.

To make our ribbon board hangible, we used this amazing little clip that simply slides into place - no tools needed.

The completed back:

The completed front:

Our finished project hanging on the wall:

This was such a simple project, so much fun to make, and the final product looks great.  It helped pass the time and occupied our hands and minds for while... until my friend's water broke while she was sewing on the final button!  After hanging our project on the wall and gathering our things, we headed off to hospital to await the arrival of a new little baby boy or girl :)

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"I'll be waiting; I can't smile until I see your smile.
I'll be waiting; There's nothing else that I would rather do.
I'll be waiting; 'cause I can't sleep until I hear your heart.
I'll be waiting; patiently I'll wait right here for you."

-Beyonce