An easy DIY fabric-covered bulletin board for emergency information

I'm rarely in touch with my Etsy side; I just don't have time. The last crafty thing I made was that Halloween car wash costume for Max three years ago. Then we recently had the kitchen painted and took down an old dilapidated corkboard, and I got it into my head that I was going to make a fabric one.

Our bulletin board is where I post a lot of important Max info—emergency and doctor contacts, instructions what to do in case of a seizure or allergic reaction—along with our family calendar, so it's a very important board. Because it's in a central location in the kitchen area, I wanted it to look nice.

I used the easy DIY fabric-covered bulletin board on Making Lemonade as a guideline. I bought the same polysterene board at Lowe's (it's like styrofoam), 3/4-inch thick. I picked up the fabric at Jo-Ann's; I got outdoor fabric because it's a tight weave, so over time as people punched tacks in it would hold up. The fabric is Solarium Outdoor Merona Latte.

I figured out a way to make the project even easier: carpet double-sided tape (I am all about easy). The stuff is extra-sticky, I got it at Home Depot.

This is what to do:

• Measure the space.
• Ask the nice guy at Lowe's to cut the board down to size for you. You'll have plenty extra to spare since it's humongous, so you might want to join up with a friend and have her make a bulletin board too. Or just make two! Because, you know, you've got so much spare time on your hands.
• Place the fabric face-down on the floor, then plop the board on top. You want to have an overhang of about four or so inches of fabric to attach to the back. I did not bother covering the entire back of the board with fabric—who's gonna know? Except all of you, but you won't tell anyone, right?
• Peeling off the paper on one side of the tape, press it onto a side of the board. The package recommends walking on the tape to make sure it adheres; no worries, this will not crush the board. In fact, it will make you feel light as a feather and not at all like you still have post-pregnancy pounds to take off! Not that I know any moms like that.
• Continue to press tape onto the other three sides of the board and walk over it, feeling like you're Heidi Klum.
• Peel off the other piece of paper from the tape, fold the fabric over it and press down. Do the same on the other three sides. The corners get a bit tricky, but you'll do fine because really, who's going to examine your corners?
• Line the long sides of the board with silver thumb tacks for a nailhead trim effect. You can do the top and bottoms too if you're super-motivated.

Bang into the wall, straight through the fabric and board. Done! The entire project took me me about an hour and fifteen minutes to do.

Not bad, eh?