Today is Sisters of Nature's first ever "make it Monday"! Of course there will be many, many more, but I hope you enjoy my first one!
I am brimming over with excitement about this DIY project. I have been thinking for awhile about how you could incorporate bunting and chalkboards together and make it to where you can change out the flags for each holiday, party, or shower. And I've got it!
Just follow the directions below and you can have bunting that you can use over and over again for all your fun events. You can make as many flags for yours as you want. Just think about the longest thing you'd like to spell. I'd suggest making two different strands if you are doing two long words like "Merry Christmas" or "Congratulations Rachel". Also, don't forget about a blank one for the space in between words. You can wipe off the chalk with a damp paper towel each time. Enjoy!
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What you'll need:
-can of chalkboard paint
-paintbrush
-black foam board
-piece of paper
-ruler
-box cutter
-double fold bias tape (2 packages if you're doing 2 strands)
-2 packages of velcro dots with the sticky back (or more depending on how many letters you want, you'll need 4 velcro dots for each triangle)
-chalk ink pen or chalk
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step 1: making a triangle template
Fold a piece of paper in half. Make a triangle that is 6 1/2 inches along the fold and 3 inches across the side. This will be your template for cutting the pendant pieces of the bunting.
step 2: cutting the foam board pieces
Use the triangle template you just made and trace it as many times as you can fit onto your black foam board. I was able to get 13 triangles cut on my foam board. Now use your Xacto knife or box cutter and cut out all the triangles.
Paint one side of all the triangles with the chalkboard paint. Let them dry completely before adding the velcro (step 5).
Open up your bias tape like in the picture. Measure 16 inches from the end of the bias tape. This will be your tails of the strand that you'll use to tie it with. Put a soft velcro sticky at 16 inches on both sides of the center fold of the bias tape. Now measure 4 inches and put the dots and then 2 inches and put the dots. You will follow this pattern (4 inches,dots, then 2 inches,dots) all the way until you have reached 16 inches from the other end of the bias tape.
step 5: adding velcro to the foam board
Now take the rough velcro stickies and add them one inch from the end of both sides of the top edge (the 6 inch side). Do this on BOTH the front and back of all the foam board pieces.
step 6: putting the triangles in the bias tape
Now decide what word you'd like to spell first! Write one letter on each triangle with the chalk on the side where you painted the chalkboard paint. I spelled "hello fall" with my chalkboard bunting. That has 10 characters (including the space) so the center would be the 5th character. So I put the "O" in the center 4 inch space on the bias tape. Press the front and back of the bias tape into the velcro dots. This will make both sides of the bias tape pressed along the foam board.
If you have a shorter word and have a lot of bias tape on either side, you can tie a bow with it on each side so you don't have so much hanging. For longer words you can just leave it loose like I did here. Have fun coming up with different ways to use your interchangeable chalkboard bunting!!
This is a great tutorial! I have some "chalk cloth" (which I secretly believe might just be black vinyl that I paid too much for because someone called it "chalk cloth), and I have long thought I might use it for some kind of garland. But I love this one, and the way you approached it with the velcro is very clever.
ReplyDeleteLove it Kim!! As always, super duper awesome.
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