Create your own Inspiration Board

Last month I posted a new project... HF/0021- Take a Note, a homemade peg noticeboard using a canvas panel as a base and decorating ordinary cheap clothes pegs with napkins and pyrography to use to attach notes to ribbon wrapped around the panel.

Having made this 30x30cm panel I decided that I'd like a bigger one to use myself as an inspiration board. I also decided that I wanted a more striking background for my new larger 40x40cm inspiration panel and, as such, thought I'd share with you how I created this new version.

I used the same materials as in the above project except I didn't worry with attaching any wooden letters and you don't need any white paint. The only additional materials you'd need would be silver calligraphy powder and some clingfilm.

First water down the paints - the more you water them down the paler your background will be, but they must be very wet for this technique to work.

Protect your work area before thoroughly wetting your canvas with the colours. The canvas needs to be flooded with paint.

Randomly sprinkle silver calligraphy powder over the wet paint. (This will turn to ink as it hits the wet paint.)

Take 2 pieces of clingfilm wider than the canvas and overlap them so that they create one piece larger than the canvas. Lay it over the top and scrunch it up, creating wrinkles and pockets of trapped air bubbles. Leave to dry naturally.

When dry, peel back the clingfilm. Spray with matt varnish to seal and protect the paint and calligraphy ink.

Use a pencil to write some inspirational words on some ordinary wooden pegs. Trace over the pencil with a pyrography tool to make the words permanent.

Apply a little matt Mod Podge to some of the pegs and lay the top layer of napkins over the top, gently patting them down. Carefully apply another coat of Mod Podge over the top.

When dry, trim the excess napkin before applying a few more layers of Mod Podge, allowing to dry between layers.

To finish, wrap some ric rac or ribbon around the canvas, tying it at the back and fixing it in position with tape (again on the back). Use the decorated pegs to attach your inspirational photos etc.

So, as you can see you can take a Projects4Crafters project sheet and put your own spin on it as it were or combine different techniques on the same project. Enjoy!