Tutorial Time: Upcycled Hair Barrette Board

I love when old stuff can be upcycled into something even more useful - especially when it costs next to nothing.  I had this bulletin board in my kitchen for years and when we redesign things last summer it didn't really go with anything anymore, but I just couldn't part with it. Then I had the idea to revamp it into an organizer for my daughter's rapidly growing barrette & hair clip collection.  Free and practical!!



Making one of your own is easy.  Here's how I did it.

Materials Needed:
- Old framed bulletin board/picture
- Fabric just slightly larger than board
- 3/8 inch wide Grosgrain ribbon
- Hot glue gun
- Disappearing marker, ruler, scissors
- Optional: Stick on stabilizer or heavy paper (for backing)

First, remove the backing from the frame.  Mine was a gauzy paper/cloth so it came right off with scissors and a quick tug:

The board was just glue into the frame, so I carefully pried it out and separated them:

I cut a piece of fabric that was about 1.5 inches bigger on each side:

Next I centered the board on the wrong side of the fabric and ran a line of hot glue along one side.

I clipped a little triangle into the corners, so when I glued down the next side the edges would easily overlap:

Next I measured & marked vertical lines spaced 2 inches apart on the front to evenly space my ribbon runners for the front:

I cut pieces of grosgrain ribbon that were a couple of inches longer than the front and wrapped them over the lines tautly, gluing them at the top edges and around the back like this:

Then I ran a line of hot glue all the way around the frame and pressed in the board:

To give the back a nice finish I grabbed some stick-on stabilizer I had in my stash, cut it to the right size and just hand pressed it on.  It helped seal things up nicely and really easily, but gluing on a piece of thick paper would work too.

Now the board is ready to organize our major barrette/clip stash:

This has totally helped keep our hair accessories from getting lost and make it easy to see  what we've got when getting ready.  Not bad considering it only used stuff from my stash!  

Later this week I'm going to share some new hair clip-making fun I've been having, but I've got more great tutorials & ideas on my Barrette Making board on Pinterest.  You can find and follow it here:

I'm also sharing this project with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!