when in doubt, use sharpies.

...or help your sister clean her room and reap the benefit of getting first dibs on all the goodies in the Goodwill pile.

It all pays off in the end, people.

Anyway, I recently saw Danyelle's photo on the old Pinterest feed and was inspired to turn my sister's old white-painted corkboard into something similar to this:

I also saw these adorable hand-drawn frames (unfortunately I couldn't find the direct link!) by Emmy Lu Design Studio featured on The Sweetest Occasion.

And because Sharpie's are a DIY girl's best friend (okay, maybe second to Pinterest), I decided I would try my hand at drawing frames.

For those wondering, the white base paint is likely white house paint (I'm not quite sure because it was painted years ago) that was painted directly onto the corkboard. 

When it came to drawing and designing frames, I just free-handed some cute frames using the inspiration above and sketched it all out with pencil on a piece of paper. 

Then, I sketched right onto the corkboard with pencil. Luckily, with the kind of paint on the corkboard, light drawing erased with ease.

And because I was a little bored, I decided to go over the pencil sketches with Sharpie. I'd highly recommend using the fine point pens (as opposed to the ultra fine point pens) because I found they draw on the paint better. 

In retrospect, I think using a grey permanent marker would have looked better and would be classier, but I'm happy with the splash of color the Sharpies provided. 

What DIY projects have you created lately?

For those wondering, here's what I pinned on the board:
frog valentine sticker : Target (from 2011)
photos: taken by yours truly (me)
photography art prints (upper right corner): free via photography concentrate
cursive "bless the Lord" verse: handwritten by yours truly
quotes and other mini prints : free, via simple as that
2012 favorites: handwritten by yours truly