I completed my first craft project courtesy of Pinterest over the weekend.  I saw this post about the magnetic make-up board and thought “Hey!  I could actually use that and make it myself!”.  I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions (because I never keep them) but for some reason this year I decided to “Organize and Simplify” which has been my motto for 2012.  I’ve been doing pretty well and I thought this would be perfect for getting my makeup off the counter (so that I might actually keep the counter clean).

Behold before & after photos 🙂  On the left (although I’m a bit embarrassed to actually show you this) is the before picture of my side of the bathroom.  Notice all the makeup / brushes on the right hand side?  I like to keep things I use daily near by and accessible, but it’s just so cluttered.  Next, you can see the AFTER and how nice and clean the counter is?  I love having all my make up right there and as I finish getting ready they just go right back up on the board. And finally a close up of it hanging on the wall.

Here are the details on how I made mine.

1) Obtain all components:

• Sheet Metal (Lowe’s) – I got a 24×24 piece and used metal shears to cut it
• Metal Shears (Lowe’s) – or if you have a jigsaw with appropriate blade (this would give you a cleaner cut, but I wasn’t worried about it being perfect)
• Magnets (Lowe’s / Staples) – I’m sure you can find them at Walmart or plenty of other stores too.  I heard the Dollar store had them, but I didn’t find any there.
• Spray Adhesive (Lowe’s) – I had never used spray adhesive before so I wanted to try it.  I’m sure you could get by with hot glue if you already have that.
• Picture Frame (Goodwill) – I didn’t have one large enough so I went to Goodwill and bought one for $5.
• Spray Paint (Lowe’s) – if you want to paint the frame
• Fabric – we have a fabric / quilt store in Statesville!!  I got mine from http://needleandthreadnc.com/.  I couldn’t decide while I was there so I got these two:

2) Spray Paint the frame.  I chose to do a silver metallic and I love the way it turned out.  I forgot to get a BEFORE picture, so the 2nd picture is of the back and you can kind of see a sliver of the dark brown stain that was originally on the frame.  I didn’t worry about priming before hand, I just sprayed the silver right over top.

3) Cut the sheet metal to the appropriate size and adhere magnets to your make up.  I used a hot glue gun.  They’re also pretty easy to pop off and then adhere to new make up when you get it.  At first I had trouble popping one off but it eventually came.  I did notice that my magnets from Staples weren’t strong enough for a glass jar of eye cream, so I had to use a stronger one.  You’ll just have to play around with it and the different things that you’re trying to put on the board.

4) Adhere the fabric to the sheet metal.  I chose to use Spray Adhesive (because I’ve never used it before).  I cut the fabric just about 2 inches larger on all sides than the sheet metal.  Then I sprayed the sheet metal and adhered the fabric.  I then sprayed the back side and adhered the overhanging fabric.  You could also just cut the fabric to the exact size, but since it’s going in a frame and all that is hidden anyway, I figured this was faster.

5) Put your lovely fabric covered sheet metal into the frame and secure.  I had an original picture/mat in mine.  So I just put that in behind the frame which I felt added a little support.  And finally, attach your makeup!  Notice the pink locker holder at the bottom right?  I got that idea from my mother-in-law.  And when I was at Staples this was the only one they had.  I figured it would work out because of the pink in one of my fabric choices.  That kind of helped me make a final fabric decision as well.  It works perfectly for holding all my brushes and even my mascara (but you could put a magnet on that).