Window Frame Message Center

This project was inspired by Donna for her Gitter Done Link Party.
A couple of years ago, when I was still living in Idaho, I saw a Craigslist posting for some free windows. I wanted a few, so I called the guy, but when I showed he said if I wanted any, I had to take them all. What’s a girl to do? I couldn’t turn my back on all those poor windows. I did what any reasonable crafter would do…I loaded up my van and headed home.
Hubs was less than thrilled to have 60+ windows to deal with. But the creative potential in those windows was enormous! I ended up giving a lot of them away, and I had to leave my favorite set behind when we moved from Utah to Ohio (I was going to make a greenhouse out of them), but one of the windows to survive  was turned in to a message center for my house. 
My first attempt looked like this. 
Daja helped me pick out the fabric. While I like the fabric, it’s really more her than me and I originally intended to make several versions of the side panels so I could switch them out with the seasons. After spending far too many hours figuring out the ribbon part, I got over that idea toot sweet.
The center section is cut from a smooth white panel found from Lowes. The panel on the left is cork board covered with the fabric. I thought it would look unbalanced to just leave it as plain cork. The right panel is foam core board covered with batting, fabric and ribbon. I didn’t get a close up, but where the ribbons cross, I sewed a button through the thickness to create a tufted effect. I then glued glass half-marbles over the buttons. I used the marbles as thumb tacks for the other side by gluing them to plain thumb tacks. 
Take one was used in my Utah home this way for several months, before a lay-off forced us to move six short months later. In Ohio, I didn’t have any wall space near the kitchen wide enough for the message center. I ended up turning it the long way and hanging it with the cork section at the top. It fits perfectly behind the door to the garage (the only wall space in my kitchen). However, after living with it for awhile now, I had to admit it was time for a change. I didn’t like the stark white of the board with the brown, and my house is currently bathed in Renter’s Beige and I’m sick-to-death of beige ready for a change.
I started with this fabric, in the color I LOVE!
We ended up with this. 
I had a piece of glass cut to fit the center section so I could put coordinating fabric behind it. I like the dry erase on the glass better than the white board, as you can get it cleaner after wiping off the marker. This fabric was from JoAnn’s and it was printed a little crooked, so I had some finagling to do to make the pattern come out straight. Since no one see the back, I took the lazy efficient route and used duct tape to secure the fabric on the back. It looks like this:
The lines on the back help me know where to line up the ribbons. Here’s a close up of the tufting:
I used two ribbons for this board. The background is really more of a cream so it’s ribbons in both colors. I like the effect. I had both blue and green marbles and while the blue matches perfectly, it was tomatchymatchy for my taste. I ended up using the blue in the center row. I have both colors for thumb tacks.
It’s hard to get a good shot of this with my little cell phone camera. Here’s a close up of each section.
Top:
Center:
Bottom:
Cost Breakdown:
Window Frame – Free
Glass – $7.00
Fabric – $7.34
Ribbon – $3.87
Glass Marbles – $3.00
Batting/Duct Tape/Foam Core Board/Thumb Tacks – Supplies on Hand
Total Project Cost: – $21.21

I’m linking up:

 
Vol. 3