Can Lid Chalkboard Banner

Hi! Welcome to Branderwood House! 

I have a confession, I can't throw anything away. I have to find some purpose for it. Even if that means it may sit in a box for quite some time before I come up with that purpose. Don't go looking around my basement because there are lots of those boxes sitting around! 

I'm also a canner. I love to can anything and everything! We use lots of beans in our meals but I'll save all of that for another post. When canning after you've used the lid it's done, you can't use it again. I've been saving them for a long time now because, well there had to be a reason other than to put it back on the clean jar to keep it clean until the next canning and I was going to figure it out one day! So after collecting stacks and stacks and thinking and thinking and searching and searching, all I could come up with was to use them as labels, garden markers, and ornaments. 

Then one day after I started falling in love with every bunting, banner and garland that I saw, it hit me MAKE A BANNER WITH THEM! And not just any kind of banner, A CHALK BOARD BANNER! 

Soooooooo, that's just what I did!

I started by making a hole at the top on each side. (sorry I don't have pictures of the steps)
 It worked easier to just hammer a nail to make the hole. You want to make sure that you use a large enough nail so that your twill, ribbon, twine etc will run through it easily. 

Then I primed them up with a coat of Rustoleum spray paint that I already had. For this the color doesn't really matter because its just to help the chalk board paint to stick. And Rustoleum is in my opinion the best at sticking to anything! I've used it to paint on glass, dishes, plastic and metal and it has never peeled off. 

I just laid them out on a drop cloth and sprayed the front. No need to do the back since it won't show, but you could if you wanted to, just make sure that you allow plenty of time for each side to dry completely before turning them so that they don't stick to the drop cloth and mess up the paint.

  

After they dried, I brushed on some chalk board paint that I had on hand (which is some that I purchased a while back for another project and it was Benjamin Moore) . I let that dry, then applied a second coat. 

I had some twill tape that I bought from twilltape.com a few years ago. You could use ribbon, twine, etc. But I liked the look of the twill tape and it worked perfectly for this!

I thought of every possible quote that I might would use on this to see how many lids I would need to use. Welcome, Merry Christmas, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Birthday, etc, etc. I added a few extra just in case I found a new quote to use!

After the paint has dried then you are ready to assemble.
Lay them out in a row like they will be hanging.
 Cut your twill into 5" strips.
 You will run the twill from back to front on the top right hole on the first lid.
 The other end of the twill will go back to front on the second lid in the top left hole.

Then tie a bow.

Continue this until you have finished them all.

On the end pieces I just used one long piece of twill and made a loop to hang it with.

I love the look of it against my white fire place.

I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas!
 Next post I'll share some of the handmade Christmas presents that I gave this year.