My sister requested ribbon bulletin boards for her girl's rooms for Christmas. I am planning to make one for our daughter as well, but lost steam today after doing these two and will do it another day. I decided to take pictures of the process, in case anyone was interested in seeing how it was done. First, I got a piece of 1/4 inch particle board from Lowes, and had them cut it in thirds before leaving the store.
I placed the boards on batting and cut it a little larger. This gives a little padding under your fabric. I thought it was optional, but now that I have it made, I think it is necessary! You'd feel every particle in the board and it gives a little cushion to the ribbon later on.
Then I put the fabric around the board, on top of the batting, and stapled it all around the edges, making the corners crisp.
Then wrap the ribbon (I bought some cotton-ish white strip at the fabric store. Don't know what it was called, but it was 10 cents a yard, and I liked the look of it. )around the board on a diagonal. I placed mine 6 inches apart. Put all the ribbons on one direction first. When you add the ribbons the other direction, weave them over/under the first ribbons to give everything more stability and help hold the papers in. I would probably do less than 6 inches if I had it to do over....I didn't realize that the smaller papers will sometimes fall out.