Drop Cloth no-sew Chalkboard Bunting

I have THE easiest project for you today!  I combined two of my favorite things, drop cloth and chalkboard.

 

I use drop cloth material for various projects.  After washing and drying it, I generally rip off the hem. I do it  4 inches from the hem.  This makes great ruffles for projects like this slipcovered chair.

I recently found another use for the hemmed pieces. I made a no-sew drop cloth chalkboard bunting!

 

 

This is the first chalkboard bunting I made. I used my Silhouette Portrait to make some triangles, and folded it in thirds, sort of like paper dolls.

 

I continued till my length was cut.

 

The picture makes the bunting triangles look huge, but really they aren’t.  The are about 3 inches wide by 4 inches long.

 

 

Because of the way I folded it, some of the cuts didn’t make it all the way to the hem.

 

I used Scotch Blue painter’s tape to  tape the front part of the hem, then folded the tape over to the back side.

 

 

I used Krylon Chalkboard Spray paint, spraying a few light coats.

 

Some of the spray paint bled under the tape.  I conditioned the chalkboard paint by rubbing chalk over it.

 

Here it is hanging on my faux garden gate on the mantel.

 

 

I made a shorter one.

 

I decided to make another chalkboard bunting with brush on paint.  I used another hemmed piece of drop cloth, but used the original bunting as a guide for my triangles.

 

With this one, I folded accordion style, one triangle width, back and forth, back and forth.  I cut through all the thicknesses–

 

I opened it up, and then finished off each triangle, cutting all the way up to the hem.

 

I like using foam brushes with chalkboard paint.  Look, right there on the can, it says, “create a chalkboard on virtually any surface”.  Including DROP CLOTH material.  I am an impatient crafter and I didn’t want to tape it off, so I tried freehanding it.  Yeah.. that didn’t work so well.

Here you can see that I ended up painting the hemmed portion too.  I conditioned my new chalkboard after letting one coat dry overnight.

 

Are you curious about the difference in the chalkboard paints?  The spray paint was much easier to say the least, and I like the feel of it a little more—the fabric is  not as stiff as the canned chalkboard paint.   Please imagine that the bunting is a little higher on the mantel. I am writing this post late, and it’s too dark to take a better picture.  I will update the picture in a day or so.

 

You can see that the hemmed drop cloth makes a perfect no-sew chalkboard bunting.  The possibilities are endless. Write any message, then erase and write a new message.

I’ve made  one other no-sew bunting from a drop cloth a couple of years ago.

 

 

But my inspiration for this project comes from my friend Michele who posted this muslin chalkboard bunting on My Repurposed Life 2 1/2 years ago.

 

I’m writing this late on Tuesday night– I taught my first night class tonight, and I think it went really well. I met some very nice and talented ladies….but I forgot to take a single picture!  Bad blogger!  I’m hoping that some of the ladies will share pictures of their treasures so I can show you.

What have you transformed into a chalkboard lately?

gail

See other great chalkboard ideas here: