Fabric Covered Magnet Boards

Not to long ago my friend (and co-worker), Ashley, and I went to the Shopping Spree and saw fabric covered magnetic boards. Ash and I both thought they were super cute but kinda pricey, so we decided we were going to try to make our own. Ash has a sweet little baby girl due in just 3 weeks so we decided to have a Saturday craft date to work on the boards. Thanks to Ashley we had this wonderful website to guide us through our project: Fabric Boards.

 (Sorry about the bad photo quality - I was using my phone)

We started off by purchasing the following items:

1. picture frame ($10.00)
2. zinc-coated steel ($10.00 -> could make 2)
3. steal-cutting scissors ($10.00)
4. extra strong magnets ($2.29 for a pack of 8)
5. fabric (mine was only $1.50!!!)
6. buttons ($2.29)
7. adhesive spray ($6.99)

To begin our project we used the mat from our frame to outline where we needed to cut on our steel

*A little side note: Cut the steel slightly smaller than your outline so that it will fit easily into your frame. We broke 2 frames learning this the hard way. 

** If you could get Lowes or Home Depot to cut your steel.. DO IT!!!! Otherwise, the scissors make it super hard.

Unfortunately we didn't get pictures from the rest of our experience because the adhesive spray was super sticky. But we did learn that it is easy to have 2 people to help keep the fabric nice and tight. After our first board we decided to use a "scraper" to help press down the adhesive spray so our fingers didn't get so dirty - I also think it helped our fabric to lay down better. 

 

Lastly, we used the adhesive spray to glue the magnets to the back of our buttons. 

Here are our finished products:

 For baby Kaylee

Ash kept the glass on the front of hers and the magnets still worked great!! Unfortunately, my glass broke so I wasn't able to do this but I highly recommend it. It seems to make the fabric stay down better as well. 

For me:

This was a super fun project and fairly easy to do! Ash and I both agreed to start having "craft days" more often! Baby Kaylee is going to have lots of great crafts!! I can't wait to meet her!