Wednesday, February 24, 2010

My Creative Space: Vintage Loveliness and a Question

My Aunt has all sorts of vintage treasures; stuff that she has saved over the years. She especially loves pretty things and shares generously. Her inventiveness has been to my benefit as she used some vintage wall paper to wrap a birthday gift for my Mum last year and my Mum passed it on to me. I thought about how I wanted to use this scrap of 1950's loveliness and realized that I wanted to see it regularly. After some consideration I decided that I wanted to use it for a bulletin board but a little further pondering made me sure that I did not want to litter it with pin-holes. With those parameters, I decided that it would be best used as a facing for a magnetic board.

I soon set about looking for something I could make into a magnetic board with the wallpaper. I kept my eyes out for months in the thrift store: I knew that I had seen steel magnet boards that might work for this project. Alas, the thrifting fairies were eluding me and I found nothing suitable! I started to look in the hardware stores for a cookie sheet of the right size made of a magnetic metal. No luck! Finally I went to Wal-mart and found a magnetic cork board which at 17" square was not quite the size that I had in mind but was the closest yet. Life has interfered with my crafting lately so I did not get to the project right away. Last Friday, when the Salvation Army was having their fifty per cent off sale, I finally found what I knew was out there: An Ikea steel magnet board 16" x 23" for $4.99 minus 50%.

So now I have a few questions. First, I believe it better to use more length than width of the wall paper's design so I think that the Ikea board would work best even though I would have preferred it to be slightly wider. Does anyone have another take on this? The second question is which adhesive should I use to hold the paper to the steel (or maybe cork)? I do not expect anyone to pick the Gorilla Glue (I just love the name) but the other four are likely candidates. Wednesday is usually a day that I can accomplish a little in the studio but today my husband and I went to the funeral of one his colleagues who had been a founding member of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra and well-loved by all. I just have not had the oomph to get to the project today but that has allowed me to ask the questions that I have yet to work out. I am hoping that all the creative people sharing on Kristy's blog can give me some guidance.

13 comments:

Kirsty said...

I can't help you with the glue thing...sorry but the paper is wonderful. I have some fabric with a very similar pattern.

Liesl said...

The wallpaper is fantastic. I think the magnetic board is a brilliant way to use/display it.

I am a fan of Weld Bond - I wonder if that would do the trick?

Sarah said...

That wallpaper is gorgeous. Such '50's romance! As for the glue...Spray mount? It's the least messy I can think of and allows for repositioning. Or maybe you could put it in a frame without glass? Or maybe wrap ribbon across the board in a lattice pattern to create a pinfree pin board?? I'm sure it will look lovely whatever you do.

yardage girl said...

That wllpaper is dreamy and will look lovely on a board. I would use spray adhesive and then press out any air bubbles with a rolling pin or something similar. Good luck with it!

Chasing Purple Dreams said...

The paper is beautiful and will be great as a magnet board. Just before you get gluing have you checked that your magnets are strong enough to work through the wall paper and what ever you might like to display with the magnets? I agree that the spray adhesive will be the least messy, but I think you will have to spray both surfaces to make the bond strong enough on your non porous steel, so it may not retain its repositionable characteristics then. The cork board would be a lot easier to glue (as long as it has a traditional porous surface, I have never heard of a magnetic cork board so I am not sure if the surface is different).
I was also thinking of a “ribbon lattice” board as soon as you started your story, so if the magnets should not work out for any reason you always have that option.
Good luck I hope we get to see the finished product.

yardage girl said...

Kylie is right - spray both surfaces, wait a minutes until both are tacky and then press togther. Good luck!

Kylie said...

How gorgeous is this paper! I love the sound of your aunt and how lovely that she shares her finds with you :) I'm afraid I have no expertise in this area - just wanted to say hi and thank you for all your wonderful comments. You always brighten my day :) Kx

Fleur de Boheme said...

Hi! The wallpaper is gorgeous and I love your idea of using it as magnet board. I´m not an expert on glueing and I think the spray glue sounds like a good idea, but I can see the problem with the very smooth metal surface... Wallpaper paste crossed my mind, as walls can be very smooth, too and the paste should be strong enough to keep everything in place.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a lovely comment - if you´re interested in a shrug let me know, and I will put some of them in my webshops, too.

Good luck with your project! xxx Kirsten

Katie said...

Wish I had an aunt like that -- Good luck on finishing it up and be sure to post pics! Thanks so much for leaving a comment on my blog about my son's photo. I am always so excited to see who has stopped by!

Peta @ Pippiwillow said...

HIya - I know that you have settled on a magnet board..but..(devils advocate here!) I think I use it as a large mount for a photograph of ,,say your family etc. then you'd get to see the large edges all the time.
And the cut out centre piece could be made into something else - equally as fabulous and difficult to decide.
This is usually my biggest problem ..deciding what to do to/with the something wonderful that I have found! Good Luck - I am really looking forward to seeing what and how you do. Cheers. Peta

Aussie-waffler said...

That really is such wonderful wallpaper and I like the magnet board idea but I'm afraid I am not terribly adept with the gluing process, so I can't really offer any advice on that front. Good luck.

You can call me Betty, or Bethany, or Beth ...Just don't call me late for dinner. said...

Love the Paper! I think the pin board with lattice ribbons might work the very best. Sometimes magnets can mar paper. Or if you sealed it after you mounted it on the magnet board. That could work too!

;)

Jenifir said...

Thanks for all the comments. I am finally getting to it this week (more than a year later!). I will definitely seal the paper with a matte finish/sealer.