chaos container

You've witnessed the atrocity that is this multi-colored canvas. 

Well, prepare to see it transformed into something much less disgusting and much more useful.  The long-overdue project was my great accomplishment on Christmas day.  I started by marking the fabric with a yellow sharpie, my palest, least-likely-to-bleed-through color.  I measured enough for a 3" overhang on all sides of my giant canvas.

Next, I cut out that large piece of fabric.  I positioned it over the canvas and knelt on one edge to hold it in place.

Then I pulled down the top like a bedsheet, sprayed the canvas beneath with an even coat of spray adhesive, and smoothed the fabric back in place.  Thus, in a matter of seconds, half the ugly old was covered in unobtrusive new.

I repeated this step in reverse for the lower half of the fabric.  Then I carried the whole thing to the table to finish with hot glue.  Starting with a less-daunting short side, I glued down the overhanging fabric a few inches at a time, pulling tight before letting the fabric touch the glue.  (I didn't want any wrinkles on the front!)

The corners were a little tricky.  I've never been great at corners, whether we're talking about wrapping presents, making the bed, or gluing fabric to a homemade message board.  I think these corners turned out passably, though.

When all the edges were secured, I flipped the board face-up to attach a cork board and a dry erase board.  The cork came from a $5.99 roll I bought at Hobby Lobby.  It was one long, thin sheet with a fully adhesive back.  I cut it to size using the height of the dry erase board as a guide.  (The ruler served to extend the top line of the board, which was narrower than the cork.)

Once it was the proper size, I rolled the cork backwards to counteract its tendency to curl back on itself--so annoying!  Then I peeled back a couple inches of the plasticky/paper stuff that covered the adhesive.  That way the adhesive would stay exposed while I positioned the cork where I wanted it.

When I had it in place, I gradually peeled away more and more of the backing, smoothing the cork from middle to edges as I stuck it down.  Going slowly helped me avoid bubbles and crookedness.  It was even easier to stick the dry erase board, which came with 3M-style sticky foam pieces.  Here's the finished board hanging above my desk.

Now all that remains is to buy or make a 2012 calendar to hang at the top.  The whole idea here is to rid my desk surface of insidious little scraps of this and that--library due slips, grocery lists, dates to transfer to the calendar, and so on.  What do you do to keep those little notes under control?