The "silver" trays came from the dollar store. There were three pretty shapes to choose from. They are all nice, but the straighter edges of the rectangle were much easier to work with.
Using painter's blue tape, I taped off the decorative edges. Creating the curved lines with painter's tape was the tricky part. Be as exact as you can, but if the edges aren't smooth, you can smooth them out a little after you paint with Goof Off solvent.
With the edges covered, spray the centers with Chalkboard spray paint. (I bought mine from Sherwin Williams.) Spray 2 or 3 thin, smooth coats- not one heavy coat. After the paint is completely dry, you can remove the tape. (Here is where the solvent comes in handy to smooth any jagged lines that may have occured.)
You need to completely cover all of the painted area with chalk, then erase it. At that point your message board is ready to use.
It would be pretty displayed on your counter on a plate display stand, but I wanted to hang these. Since they are plastic, you can just punch holes in them with a hammer and a good-sized nail.
I wanted the holes to be the same on each plate so I carefully measured and marked where I wanted them to be. They were 2 inches apart and 1 inch down from the painted edge.
Placing the plates on an old board (to give the nail somewhere to go) I hammered the holes.
I threaded a pretty ribbon through one hole from the front to the back, around a peanut butter jar so that the hanging part of the ribbon would be the same length on all of them, then through the other hole from back to front. At that point I tied a nice bow on the front and it was ready to hang.
This turned out really well, and looks so much more expensive than it is. I'd love to hear if you have tried this bit of craftiness and how it worked for you.
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