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[Handmade] Message board ideas that convey your honest feelings
A message board to express gratitude and encouragement to friends and upperclassmen graduating from school, or to colleagues transferring or leaving a company.
At farewell parties or on graduation day, it’s common to give a colored card or album filled with honest messages from each member.
You may be looking for ideas for a heartfelt message board.
In this article, we’ve gathered and highlighted handmade message board ideas.
From stylish designs to warm, hand-drawn illustrations, check out these handmade message boards you can use to suit any occasion.
[Handmade] Message Board Ideas That Convey Your Honest Feelings (1–10)
gift box
This is a vibrant and cute group message board with colorful gift boxes packed across the backing.
A folded message card decorated with a gift-box pattern is tucked under each ribbon, so recipients can pull them out to read the messages.
Try to avoid repeating card patterns as much as possible, and layer them with the ribbons to really emphasize a lively feel.
If the ribbons are loose, the cards may fall out, so making sure the ribbons fit the cards snugly is also an important point.
A heart that flips through like fluttering pages
If you want a slightly elaborate and stylish group message, the “Flip-Through Hearts” is recommended.
First, make heart-shaped message cards—one per person—using colored construction paper.
Next, take a rectangular sheet of paper, draw lines at 1 cm intervals around the center and crease them.
Then, glue the heart cards on, shifting each one slightly as you go.
Fold the rectangular paper over at the last heart, and secure it in a band shape with another strip of paper while the two layers are stacked.
When you pull the side without the hearts, the message cards will flip through like pages.
Attach it to the cover of an album or similar, and you’ve got a stylish message card ready to go!
Rabbit frame
To keep the messages in a group note from overlapping, it’s standard to enclose each person’s message in a frame.
Try drawing such frames with a rabbit motif to draw more attention to the messages.
It’s simple: when framing the entire message, draw two long ears at the top, and once the whole is enclosed, add whiskers on the left and right.
Choosing colors that evoke a rabbit or adding small rabbit illustrations within the messages will help emphasize the rabbit theme throughout, which is highly recommended.
muted color(s)
This activity involves cutting muted-colored construction paper into free-form designs to create frames around each message.
By using pale colors as the background, the text of each message stands out, and the surrounding decorations also appear more vibrant.
You’re free to choose any shape, but we recommend selecting motifs that match the writer’s image or the content of the message.
If you use only muted colors, the overall look may become too soft, so try incorporating other colors as well as you put together the group message board.
Bouquet illustration
This is a group message board with a bouquet motif.
First, place your hand wide open along the bottom edge of the card and draw small flowers at each fingertip.
Next, draw lines along the outside of the thumb and pinky to form the base of the bouquet.
After adding some flowers in the center of the card, draw as many comment frames as needed around them for everyone to write their messages.
Finally, finish it off with colorful markers or colored pencils, and it’s complete.
It can also serve as a substitute for a bouquet to give to a graduating senior or a boss who’s retiring—two birds with one stone.
Give it a try!
pastel color
When you think of a message board, you probably picture writing messages on a white shikishi board.
This idea shows how to decorate that white board with pastels and transform it into a warm, vibrant look.
You’ll need pastels and a tea strainer: shave the pastels so the powder falls onto the board, then use a tissue to spread it and add color overall.
Using various pastel colors can create gradients on the board, but be sure to control the amount of powder and how you spread it so the colors don’t blend unintentionally.
Spreading the pastels with a circular motion is the key to conveying warmth and softness.
A colored paper where the message is hidden
This is a group message board where each message is hidden and can be opened to read individually.
Since they’re arranged closed on a base like a colored board, no one else will read them while it’s being made, and each contributor can include a personal message for the recipient.
Each message is a simple bi-fold sealed with a sticker, and you can get creative with the folding style and the illustration visible when it’s closed.
If you use a design that looks like a letter, it strongly emphasizes the idea of a “gift of a message,” so it’s highly recommended.
Club activity illustration frame
These are frames that surround each message, using club activity uniforms and equipment as motifs.
The content, which clearly evokes the club through illustrations, seems perfect for a farewell message collection for graduating members.
First, draw the outline of the uniform in a pale color and then firmly trace it in black so the messages stand out clearly.
If you decorate around the uniform with illustrations of the equipment you used, it will more effectively convey the essence of the club activities.
Mimosa frame
This is a frame inspired by mimosa flowers, known for their soft look with clusters of small round yellow blooms.
It’s great not only for surrounding individual messages, but also for framing titles or decorating the entire layout.
Start by drawing a guiding line where you want the frame, then add yellow circles of random sizes along it.
If you pack the circles too tightly, the mimosa’s softness won’t come through, so be mindful to leave some space.
Finally, draw the leaf elements in green to finish.
Using green for the message text could also look nice.
Diploma
These are frames, inspired by graduation diplomas, that surround each message in a group message board.
They not only suit graduation-themed message boards, but also convey heartfelt cheers for embarking on a new step.
Draw a gold line inside a black-outlined border to create a dimensional and glamorous frame.
It’s also recommended to include illustrations such as a diploma case tube and motifs like cherry blossoms that evoke a graduation ceremony.
Quoting standard wording from a diploma for the message content could be a fun idea, too.