DIY Chalkboard Signs

So just the other day, I was complaining to my Matron of Honor about not knowing what to do about wedding signs.  I was thinking of using foam core, but It was mostly a back-up plan and I was mostly resigned to the idea, when she suggested something to me.

She was saying that she had seen where someone took cheap plastic trays, and spray painted them to be chalkboard in the center, so they could be used for anything!  I was immediately on board with the idea, and I had a cheap plastic tray that I was willing to sacrifice to the cause.

Well ... I ended up not liking the shape of the tray, so I decided to hit my local Dollar Tree and see if they had anything better.

Look what I found! There was a stack of these cute metal (not even plastic!) trays!  I immediately loved the vintage feel of them, and felt they would blend well with the rest of my Steampunk theme.

I immediately started taping them off so I could spray the middles with chalkboard paint.  As I was taping them off, I was thinking that although the color didn't match my theme, I was okay with that because my can of copper spray paint wasn't very metallic and I didn't want to use it on the border of the tray.  Weeeeell, by the time I had taped off most of the trays, I wasn't happy with the chrome/silver, so I ran off to Michael's to get a can of metallic copper spray paint.

Of course, this meant that I needed to untape all of the trays to get the copper sprayed first ... d'oh!  I am a very indesicive person ... haha.

So I focused on the border, giving the edges several light coats of paint.  When working with metallic paint, it is important to go slow and do light coats because paint drips are super obvious when using metallic paints.  I am not really very patient, but I managed to only get one small, barely noticeable, drip.

I did all the spray painting in my backyard, to prevent getting paint on anything important (my arm not withstanding) and so I didn't inhale too many fumes.  Please excuse my patio, it's been kinda ignored all summer long and with school projects, it has been getting a bit messy.

Remember that taping off process? Well, now it's time to re-do all off the trays.  I did two light coats of regular black spray paint that I had laying around, so that I wouldn't have to worry about using as much chalkboard paint.  I still sprayed two coats of chalkboard paint, before peeling off all the tape.  I touched up the edges with matte black acrylic paint, so they looked nicer and smoother (the matte black blended well with the matte chalkboard paint).

This also worked on the large plastic tray I found too.  So you can use pretty much anything you want for this project, and the border would work in any color too! Such an easy project, and super cute and helpful, that I am glad my Matron of Honor gave me the idea!