2012 Christmas Ornament Exchange: Rustic Chalkboard Ornament

Well, I did it.  I did my very first ornament exchange!  Dana from Crafted Niche organized the whole sha-bang and it was super fun!  I'm not sure if she did it on purpose but she paired me up with someone whose decorating style was completely different from mine!  When we signed up we had to describe our style and any other information you thought they should know.  I said that my style was glam and my exchange buddy, Steph from Salem, MA, was rustic.  I will say that it was fun to do something different so I'm glad it worked out that way.  

Steph also mentioned that she had a 4 year old son so she said she was open to anything that would be fun for him too.  My mind immediately went to chalkboard paint.  I went to Hobby Lobby with a general plan and picked up some chalkboard paint and this round piece of wood.

After I painted the front side with 2-3 thin coats, I let it dry for a full 24 hours and pulled out my paints so that I could give the back side a couple of coats of red paint since I didn't want it to look unfinished.

Once that dried really well, I folded some ribbon in a loop and attached it to the back, folding the raw edges underneath so it didn't show.

That was the easy part!  Here is where I struggled a bit.  I knew I wanted to line the outside of the ornament with sticks to give it that rustic effect but I couldn't decide how I was going to place them.  First I thought I would take really thin sticks and lay them flat all around the ornament but then I had a better idea.  I'm sure you've seen in decor where people are slicing logs and branches and stacking them with the insides facing out so that it looks like artwork.  You don't?  Oh, well here are a couple of examples to show you.

Via

And this one makes me say Oh Em Geeee.  Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my mouth.

Via

Brilliant! (I said in my best British accent.)  So I gathered a bunch of sticks from outside and stuck them in the freezer for about 7 hours.  Supposedly, that's what you're supposed to do if you use anything from outside.  It's supposed to kill anything that's living inside them.  Lovely thought, I know.  I sliced the stick until I got a really pretty inside.  Please excuse the manicure, or lack thereof.  

My idea was to slice them about 1/2-1 inch thick and line them around the perimeter.  Well my crappy bush trimming shears weren't doing the trick.  Actually, it was doing a trick.  It was splitting the wood in half like you'd see a magician splitting a human in half.  Womp, womp.  On to plan C.

I ended up cutting up two different colors of sticks and laying them around the perimeter, alternating the colors of the sticks and attaching them with my handy dandy glue gun.  And yes, i was doing this while watching Glee. 

Once I got them all in place, I was still worried that the sticks would fall off so I went around the back of it with my glue gun just to make sure it wasn't going anywhere.

After all that was done, I decided to give it a whirl on my own tree to see how it looked.  It was a little bigger than I hoped it would be but you gotta have plenty of room to draw!  Also, it was a bit heavy but once I tucked it in the limbs a bit, it worked just fine!

Hold up!  I'm not done yet.  Actually I lied earlier.  I said figuring out the branch issue was the hard part.  Let me take that back.  Finding chalk was the hard part! Never in my life did I ever imagine that finding plain, white teacher chalk would be so difficult!  I went to WalMart...no chalk.  I went to the Dollar Tree...no chalk.  I went to the Dollar General...no chalk.  Finally, I went to the place that I should've gone to in the first place...Hobby Lobby.  Actually, I did go there first but to buy the other stuff for the ornament.  Not chalk.  Doh!

Once I finally got the chalk, I took it home and treated the front side by laying the chalk on its side and covering the entire area.  I erased it and wrote this on it.  I figured her little boy could count down to Christmas, draw pictures on it, or write some festive messages. 

I couldn't send the ornament without any chalk...heaven forbid I send them on a wild goose chalk-chase!  So I took some Velcro and attached a small piece of chalk to the back of it and wrote on the back.  

So since this is an "exchange" I have to take the time to show you what I received!  After anxiously checking the mail every day like a crazy person, it came!  

Isn't it sooo cute??  I told her I was incorporating peacock feathers into my decor and she made me peacock ornament!  Oh, and blinged it out!  Thanks, Steph.....I love it!  And thanks, Dana for hosting the exchange.  If y'all want to, hop on over to Crafted Niche and check out all of the other ornaments people made!