DIY Memory Board
Learn to create a DIY Memory Board to showcase all of the holiday cards and photos you will be getting this year. This DIY Memory Board lights up and is perfect to display practically anywhere in your home.Â
I love the holidays… in fact, it is my favorite time of the year! I usually start decorating in November. I know that is early for some, however, I feel like after the year we’ve had, I plan on starting even a little earlier to make this holiday season even more special.Â
It’s important to me and I want to make it as great as I can. Plus, decorating for the holidays just puts me in such a good mood.
Finding Ideas for Decorating
Do you ever wish you could find holiday ideas in one easy place?
It often takes so much time to find just the right craft or decoration to help bring the perfect look to your house while keeping everything organized.
I teamed up with over 35 other creative and talented crafters for the Holiday Maker Fest, and I will be showing you how to create a DIY Memory Board.Â
Click here to get your pass and make these fabulous crafts alongside the experts!
Memory boards are really fun and so versatile. You can use them to display cards, photos and keepsakes. And because they are so versatile, they’re great gifts to give to people. While showing you how to make a memory board, Layne is going to also show you how to use SVGs with vinyl and heat transfer, along with a simple batting and fabric upholstery technique. This project combines several skills into one project and makes for a great gift for the holidays!
How to Make A DIY Memory Board
Once you have all the materials you will need to set up an area to create. The dining room table or your craft table is a great place. I made this in front of my Dreambox cabinet as it has all my supplies within the craft storage cabinet at an arms reach.
You CAN GET $100 OFF your own DREAMBOX using code: CRAFTYLIFE at Checkout!
You can also check out my Dreambox Setup in this video to see how I have it set up! I absolutely love the Dreambox setup. It really makes crafting so much more fun!
Materials Needed:
For this holiday memory board project, you are going to need a scrap piece of wood to the desired size, craft paints in the colors of your choice, stencil material for making your stencil, twine or string and fairy lights or lights to light up your project.
- Wood Base for the Memory board background – a place to hold and hang everything
- Paint ( I used Waverly Chalk Paint from Walmart)
- Paint brush, foam brush, or even a rag if you choose to stain the wood verus paint it.
- Vinyl or Stencil vinyl material. The process I used is the paint method, however, you can use vinyl as well.
- Weeding Tool
- Transfer Tape
- FREE SVG file (found in Resource Library)
- Fairy Lights and batteries if it the lights
- Jute Twine or string
- Heavy Duty tape
Painting the Wood Board
For the background of my memory board, I painted it with Waverly’s white chalk paint. I just poured it out because this is a large surface, about 18 by 20. Make sure you get a good coverage with one coat and let it dry
I used a simple paintbrush that I had in my craft stash. Or you can use a foam brush or whatever you choose to paint on your entire background. Make sure you paint with the grain of the board.
Once the entire background was painted and dried, I turned my board to be in a vertical position and then got out some gray colored chalk paint to make the shiplap lines.
I wanted to give this one extra element, that rustic farmhouse look for this project. You can skip this if you prefer not to have this look.
Once I had my entire lines painted all the way down my board, I then took my finger and kind of smudged the lines, just to kind of give it that more washed out, rustic sanded down look.
Again, this is completely optional and you can skip this step if you don’t want to have the shiplap background.
Once I was done painting, I then set the board to the side for it to dry and got to work on creating my stencil.
Accessing the Free SVG File
To access the “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” SVG cut file, you will want to get it from the Resource Library. You will find the resource library on the main menu at the top of this page.
It is FREE to signup to part of the Crafty Life Mom Commuity where you have tons of access to Free files and printables.
Once inside, scroll all the way down to the very bottom under the seasonal and holiday section and pull up a file that says Merry little Christmas, which is specific for the Holiday Maker Fest memory board.
Download the file to your computer and put it in a place where you store or keep all of your SVG files.
Select the SVG file and open it up in your Cricut software or your Silhouette software.
Need Help Learning Your Cricut or Silhouette Craft Cutting Machine?Â
Cutting the Stencil or Vinyl
At this point, you can adjust the design to fit on your mat. You can either shrink it or even make it larger.
It is up to you on how you want to do it based on the size of your board.
I simply put mine around 10 and a half inches and then was ready to cut my stencil.
For Stencil material, I am using the Oracle 815 brand for this project.
Cutting Machine Things to Note:
Remember, when you are using a stencil, you actually want to weed out the letters instead of the negative part of your stencil, because it is the letters themselves that will be painted onto the board.
Of course, you can use this same SVG cut file and create the project using vinyl.
But because I like the painted look for this project a lot better, I decided to use a stencil material.
Click here to get your pass and make these fabulous crafts alongside the experts!
Using the Stencil
Now your design is ready to be put on your project. For this part of the project, you’ll want to decide how you want to layout your
stencil. Make sure your board is good and dry before you decide to lay it down. I split the file between the top and bottom of my board so that most of my cards could be seen and not cover up my wording.
To lay down the stencil, you’ll want to carefully find your placement and then using a squeegee tool, rub the stencil onto the board, as best as you can before you peel off the clear top sheet.
Then when peeling the top transfer sheet off, if any of those little pieces come up while you’re doing this, simply just use your finger and place them back down.
Pro Tip: A tip I want to give you is if you are using a stencil versus vinyl, you’ll want to take some mod podge and rub it into the section of where you want your stencil to be. I find that this little tip is best to help keep your stencil lines very crisp and clean. It also prevents any smudging of your paint onto the board or in with any other paint that may not be fully dried incurred. Simply just take a little sponge brush and dab a little bit of the mod podge onto the project where you are to stencil.
Painting the Sign Stencil
Using makeup sponges or small sponges, dab the sponge into the desired color for your sign. Dab off the excess, and then in the same dabbing motion sponge dab the paint into the design stencil.
This may also take 2 coats for your darker brighter colors such as red and black. Use a new sponge for each color.
Once you have finished sponge painting the entire design, give it a few minutes to dry.
Removing the Stencil
Once the stencil paint is dry or near dry, you may begin removing the stencil.
Slowly from one corner pull the stencil material up. In this kit, the stencil material is not reusable. Therefore, as you pull it, it may tear, which is okay at this point, as you will throw it away.
Add String and Fairy Lights
Once your stencil and paint are dry, you can then add jute twine and fairy lights around the board and secure with tape on the back. Add small clips or clothespins and you ready to start displaying all of your cards and photos!
What do you think? I just love this DIY Memory Board. It’s perfect because it acts as a functional piece of Christmas Holiday Decor. These also make great gifts, you can personalize, or make for others to store any memory or keepsakes year-round.
If you want the full video tutorial along with 40 other Craft DIYs and projects, then Click the link below to get your lifetime All Access Pass to the Holiday Maker Fest
Click here to get your pass and make these fabulous crafts alongside the experts!
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[…] I shared my DIY Memory Board Project for collecting and displaying all of your favorite holiday cards and […]