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DIY: Fun With Thumbtacks!

Johnna
Sep 30, 2015
3 min read

Continuing into the tradition of making more homemade gifts for my closest friends, we move onto my friend, Brianna’s gift. I got my pin-speration (I just made that up, will it catch up? We shall find out!) from one post on Pinterest working with thumbtacks and form boards.

The photo above is the pin that I added to my craft board on Pinterest. Check out the following link: http://metalandmud.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/push-pin-art/

I really wish I could have found a black foam board, but all I could find was white. So I figured I would work with that. I also tossed around the idea of even painting it black or another color just so it didn’t seem so plain, but I was worried that the thumb tacks would add cracks in the dry paint afterwards. So I continued on without the paint.

I acquired a double foam board pack from Michael’s (40% off thanks to the online coupon I always seem to find,

thank you iPhone!). The hardest part? Was trying to obtain thumb tacks! It was one of those items where you could find everywhere when you don’t need them, but once you add it to your shopping list, you can’t seem to find them anywhere! I tried to obtain all my materials for my Christmas gifts in one shot out on the town, but I took my boyfriend, Bryan, along with me, and he was fighting a migraine so I tried to rush through all my shopping. I forgot to check Wal-Mart for thumb tacks because I feel that things are usually cheaper there, but in my rush, I forgot. After I returned to school, dropping off my hurting boyfriend, I checked three more stores in the area and still could not find any thumb tacks! So I gave up for the evening and headed out to Walgreens the next morning. My goal was to find all one color, either in silver or bronze, however, I figured if I could just find them in general, it would be a miracle. I came across a multi-colored pack, and the colors actually coordinated and I concluded that these would not in fact, look tacky.

The blogger who originally posted this idea suggested getting four times the amount of tacks you thought you would need. So I bought 3 packs. I actually didn’t use them all, so I have about a pack and a half left. Make sure to keep in mind how big you want your project to be, you can always return the extras.

Bri’s favorite color is green, so I was trying to figure out if I would have enough green tacks to make the color theme lean more towards the green palate, I soon found out I didn’t.

I began by using pencil to sketch out Bri’s name. I did her entire name and in cursive, because I know that she thinks it looks classier and nicer. I aim to please

This project was relatively quick once I sat down and got down to it. After I wrote out her name, it was simply getting down to sticking in the thumb tacks. I created a pattern with the colors, and was soon finished with the “B” which was supposed to be the big stand-out letter.

Soon I was finished, wrapped it all up and headed to Bri’s room to give her the gift before she left for home (I was racing against time for all of my presents that week, on top of finals….yikes).

My little Bri loves the camera! In the blog post, she placed the foam board in a frame, however, my budget really did not allow for a nice frame to outline it. I really wish I could have gotten one, maybe in the future it’ll be another present for her! She tried to hang it up in her dorm room, but our building has concrete walls, so the painter’s tape she tried to use was not exactly strong enough. I would suggest getting command strips to hang it up, two should do the trick.

Overall, it was a really simple and do-able project! Keep calm and Pin on! xoxo