homemade personal gifts are fun

As I said before, I'm way behind on my posting. I had really wanted to post this right after Christmas, but just got too busy. Needless to say, I'm posting it now :) This year, my husband and I really wanted to cut costs during the Christmas months and get everyone a small gift as well as make a personal and useful gift--so we made everyone personal message/keyholder boards!

OK, not exactly the best Christmas gift, but it's the thought that counts right? And I'm pretty sure most everyone appreciated them! We got the idea when I felt the dire need to make something with chalkboard paint. I had this naked spot in the kitchen, and after flipping through a recent Pottery Barn catalog came across this adorable saying written on a chalkboard in the kitchen: "Put in about 1 teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly and a cupful of humor." I loved it and had to recreate with my own flair!

After I recreated for our kitchen, we then felt this would be a great personal gift for friends and family. Rushing to Home Depot, we got a thin sheet of smooth particle board, small hooks and some crown molding. It was seriously an assembly line at our house for awhile! While my husband cut the boards, I painted with chalkboard paint.

We then fastened the crown molding to the painted boards with wood glue and a stapler gun. We screwed in the hooks for the keys. We hung our board in the kitchen by simply screwing the whole thing in the wall, but figured not everyone would want to do that. To solve this (and make it an even cuter board!) we fastened ribbon at the top to hang it by. We then painted some small wooden letters black, and decorated with a white paint pen, the letters of their last name to make the board personal. We glued the letters to the framing with hot glue. It was adorable, inexpensive, practical and personal! Couldn't complain! To top off the fun gift, we wrote a cute message on the board and gave everyone chalk to keep their boards fun as well!

Below is what ours looks like. Again, I was sans camera and didn't get a picture of the cuter/more personalized ones. Maybe I will go back and add the letters and ribbon to mine as well? In any case, it is a fun feeling to walk in family/friends' homes and see these hanging proudly!