Chalkboard signs, part one

I mentioned in my 'Thanksgiving' post that my sister and I had endeavored on a chalkboard project over the holiday.  I had seen a small chalkboard made out of a serving tray, and adorned with ribbons.  Seemed straight forward enough.

Friday morning we went to the 99 cent store, and found small metal serving trays.  What a great little score.  I kind of figured we would end up with plastic trays with a silver finish.  Instead we found metal trays, and they were of good weight, too.  A super find, and exactly what the project called for.  I picked up three trays, and my sister also picked up three.

 

A small bottle of chalkboard paint from Walmart, a couple of brushes, and we were rolling, or painting, as it were.  A very quick project, and a fun one, too, with a decent result.

 

As it turned out, the 'engraved' design in the bottom of the trays wasn't cut in very deep, so after three coats of chalkboard paint, it wasn't particularly obvious, and it didn't take away from the finished product.

I would do more lighter coats next time, but to my surprise, the paint dried fairly flat, so the ridges seen in the wet paint were greatly minimized when dry.  If I was going for perfection, I would have used spray chalkboard paint, but it wasn't available at the Walmart we went to, and we didn't feel like scouring the Las Vegas craft stores for it, so we went with the 'brush on' variety.

That was as far as I got while on our trip.  I returned home with the painted trays, then put some thought to how I would hang them. Initially I was concerned about how I would attach ribbon to metal trays, but then I remembered something I'd seen before: 'dress magnets'.

Stay tuned for part two: hanging the trays, and finishing them off with some pretty ribbon!

Cost information:  the trays were 99 cents each, and the chalkboard paint (enough to do at least 6) was $1.97.  Total cost per tray about $1.33...not too bad!