Quick DIY blocking board

That well-worn adage, "Necessity is the mother of invention," came into play today as I was finishing up my challenge flowers. 

The first one, called the long star flower, has long, thin petals that were hopelessly twisted up on my finished piece. I've been doing a bit of reading over on The Crochet Crowd (Facebook.com/crochetcrowd) where thousands of Internet hookers converge to discuss their projects and challenge each other to improve. I learned about blocking while I was there, and then I found a page where someone demonstrated the process on her blocking board. One problem - I don't have a blocking board, and funds don't abound at the moment. 

I have a craft room filled with yarn and other stuff, so I figured I could throw something together to get the job done. I have documented the process for your reading pleasure! 

For this project, you will need: 

- a piece of cardboard big enough for the crochet item you need to block

- two sheets of craft foam cut to the same size as the cardboard

- a piece of cotton fabric big enough to cover the cardboard and craft foam

- a stapler

-scissors

- a flat surface

Here's my piece of cardboard: 

Nothing fancy. I cut the flap of a box off and trimmed it down a bit. 

Next, I traced the cardboard on the craft foam pieces and cut them both at the same time. 

Thrills a minute, no? Then I cut a piece of fabric big enough to wrap over the edges like wrapping a present.

I used a basic office stapler (opened up flat) to staple the fabric down. I ain't got time for glue to dry, I was working on this while the kid was napping so I wanted to get it done. 

If you're less impatient than me, you might want to iron your fabric before stapling it! Again, ain't nobody got time for that around here. 

Here's the long star flower before blocking:

Infuriating. 

And here it is in the process of being spray blocked:

I hope it helps because I think it will be pretty!

I will post my results tomorrow! See you then.