Project fail, let's try this again!

This past Christmas, I decided that I'd like to make many of my presents. Not a bad idea. Sometimes it saves money, sometimes it doesn't. The fun part is being able to create something unique and special for someone. I decided that I'd make 3 magnetic chalkboards, two for each of my daughters and one for my brother. I'd used chalkboard paint before but never had I combined it with magnetic paint. After I painted each of the frames, I cut (I mean my husband cut) MDF boards to fit into each one. I bought what I thought was a brilliant thing - magnetic spray paint. Wrong! After applying several coats of it I ran in to get the cute magnets I'd created. They just fell right off! So back to the store I went - this time I was going to buy magnetic paint to brush on. When I got home I read the directions about stirring it really well. I stuck my stir stick inside the can and it felt like I was trying to stir cement! It was thick and gloppy. Finally I stirred it the best that I could and I figured it would just smooth out with the brush. Wrong again! It was a mess - not to mention rough and bumpy. I knew that the chalkboard paint would look horrible painted over such a rough surface. I finally decided to lightly sand the magnetic paint and take my chances of it not working well enough to hold magnets. It looked better but still not great. After all of the time and money that I'd already spent on these projects, I decided that I'd go ahead and use my chalkboard spray paint on top. I normally love this stuff but it didn't look very good on top of the other paint. By this time it was getting VERY close to Christmas day and I needed to finish these things up and apologize to my family for how they turned out. I begged and pleaded with them to let me redo them. They were being way to kind to me and told me that they liked them that way. However, I convinced one of my daughters how cute it would be to make a photo board in the frame instead. She agreed to let me do it and we went to pick out some fabric and ribbon at the fabric store.


I took the chalkboard out and cut a piece of batting the same size as the board. After ironing the fabric, I turned it upside down on the counter and laid the batting and board on top.


Then I took my staple gun and stretched it tight and stapled all around the edges.


After turning it over, I cut ribbon and laid it out the way that I wanted it to be placed on the board. A little hot glue under each end allowed it to be stuck to the back. I also added a dab of hot glue under each area where the ribbons crossed. I added little rhinestones to the centers to complete it.


Much better! Now that's a present that I can feel a little better about giving away. I'll still need to work on my other daughter and brother to convince them to let me redeem my work!