Chalkboard Gift Bag

This project is featured on the CREATE blog - A blog for scrapbooking and crafting enthusiasts brought to you by the fine folks at Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, and Simply Handmade magazines.
Last week we registered for school and picked up Caleb's school supply list and the teacher's wish list and thought it would be fun to pick up some things to start her year. When we got home we only had about an hour before we had to head back to school for meet your teacher night so I was in a hurry to bag up the supplies and did not have a teacher card or tag ready. What to do?! How about a chalkboard giftbag?

I used painters tape to mark off the area to be painted and then painted on 3 coats of chalkboard paint (1). Note the ingenious use of the fan to speed things up (2). Then to easily make the frame, I cut out a piece of paper the same size as the area that was painted on the bag and taped strips of 1 1/4" A Muse woodgrain paper on the outside not being careful about measurements (3). When I turned the paper over I lined up the ruler and marked the corners with a pencil (4). So easy to do - Caleb cut on the pencil lines and when the extra paper is removed you have perfect mitered corners with no complicated measuring!! (5,6). Making the frame may seem unnecessary but removing the painters tape causes some destruction so the frame handily covered that up (7). Sign your name and stand back and admire your work (8,9).

This is a super fun easy project to do - took no time at all! If you are really following the directions for chalkboard paint you would need to let it cure and wait a day before writing on it but the quick and easy way suited our plans for that day. Typical of me, I posed the bag with apples for the teacher but then didn't think to put one on the bag until we were running out the door so there is only the one pic of the embellished bag - If you try this idea I'd love it if you shared a link.