Chalkboard Banner

This weekend I decided to make a chalkboard banner for Korey's birthday.  He was at an art conference all day Friday and Saturday so I threw him a surprise birthday party.

I would say this is simple if you know what you're doing but since I didn't research how I should do this it was more challenging than what I thought.  I did know what the end goal would be but getting there was somewhat difficult.

 My original idea was to have these wooden chalkboard circles with magnets on the back that would be lined up on a metal bar to display the message.  That is what was a challenge.  I bought a can of magnetic spray paint and painted a wooden board I bought at Michael's.  After two coats there was no way a magnet was going to stick so I had to resort to Plan B.  Plan B involved me hitting up Target and Home Depot for magnet tape and a piece of metal that could be a board I could hang.  I could only find the magnet tape.  The only metal type stuff at Home Depot was some pipe looking thing.  Umm no.  I'm sure if I'd had more time I could have found something over the course of a couple of weeks. 

So then I went to Plan C.

These are the packages of wooden disks I bought at Michael's.  They were $.99 per package.  Ignore the can of spray paint because I forgot I was going to use chalkboard paint.  Just a side note - I was under a time crunch with Korey being gone and I was also cooking and baking up a storm in the house, running back out to the grocery store because I didn't have sugar or sour cream,  and trying to get Hunter to take a nap because he decided he didn't need a morning nap.  It was a crazy day.

 The can of chalkboard paint is off to the side which I purchased at Home Depot for my chalkboard menu.  I used a foam brush this time to paint on the chalkboard coating.  It was less than a dollar at Michael's.  I only did one coat on these and I think they dried pretty quick.

When the metal board idea didn't work out (I wanted to be able to add or take away letter disks on this piece of metal), I resorted to gluing ribbon on the back of each disk and letting it dry.  I did write my letters on the front first before I glued the ribbon on.  Then after letting it dry I hung it up over our mantel!  If I want to change the letters for next time I can glue on more disks and use a wet paper towel to erase the original letters.

How to:

1.  Purchase packages of round discs (available at Michael's)

2.  Purchase can of chalkboard paint (I got mine at Home Depot but Michael's does have spray chalkboard paint)

3.  Brush paint onto round disks using foam brush (this makes it streak free)

4.  Let dry and then write letters on the front in chalk

5.  Glue ribbon to the backs of each.  I did short little pieces to connect every 2 discs and then one long piece on each end.

6.  Hang up over your mantel and tell yourself that you're a super crafy person!