Chalkboard Mason Jar Numbers

We had an intensively productive wedding task weekend. We spent a nice long weekend in Pennsylvania tying up a lot of loose ends- including getting our marriage license! It was easy, peasy- no line, no wait, nicest lady ever filling out our information.

My most successful accomplishment, besides wrapping 14 bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts all by myself (Mr. P was watching the Knicks- because, oh yea, suddenly everyone in New York cares about basketball again) was making our table numbers.

I had a lot of lofty goals- including dying mason jars blue. After a meeting with our venue where we finalized dark blue linens and light blue napkins in addition to some blue lighting our DJ is providing, I realized clear mason jars will be just fine. They will probably look blue anyway with the lighting/candles/blue linens.

Instead I stumbled upon some $5 hemp at Wal-Mart while trolling for wrapping paper and had an epiphany. Screw the blue, use hemp instead.

If you don’t care about your mason jars being antique and vintage, I definitely recommend ordering  from Wal-Mart. Ball jars are still Ball jars as far as I'm concerned. It was also the most affordable option. I had them shipped to a store by my in-laws to save more money and schlepping.

I had ordered some teeny chalkboards from factorydirectcraft.com to serve as the numbers. So, I set up my work station at the kitchen table and got to work.

You will need:
Teeny chalkboards -> Check out factorydirectcraft.com (Fast shipping, cheap prices, and tons of chalkboard options)
A hot glue gun
Hemp, twine, string, or ribbon
Mason jars

Easiest concept ever.

Just test our your hemp/string/ribbon’s length around the mouth of the jar before cutting it:

Slather on some hot glue:

Press the hemp down with something other than your fingers, because, um, OW!

Donezo- tada...

 

A finished sample featuring my favorite number

 All my numbers looking cute

I was really proud of myself for getting this done and off the to-do list. One less thing to think about.  I am really down to just one or two crafty projects. Neither of them are stressing me out. So, 10 points for me!

Now, to just get to the rehearsal dinner & wedding playlist…

Crafting Vintage Frames Into Chalkboards Part: DONEZO

The chalkboard frames are done! For someone as non-crafty as me, I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself.

These babies sort of just fell together and into place. I previously mentioned that my insane Super likes to sell off ex-tenants old crap in the basement. So I scored two old vintage looking frames for 10 bucks.

After months of procrastination we headed over to Home Depot and stared at the lumber. The two of us are the most pathetic people in the world when it comes to creating things. Luckily one of the guys working in the lumber section pointed us over to the cheapest piece of plywood, and was able to cut it down for us. His measurement skills were a bigger fail than my own, but back to that in a bit.

Back home I set up my pathetic small workspace.

Yes, it's a hard knock life crafting in a NYC apartment, but all the squats I had to do to paint the wood as I hovered above was my workout for the day.

 

I sanded off the rough cut-ends of the wood with some sandpaper and then got to the painting with a foam roller. I painted the wood for the frames along with the scraps left behind after the big piece was cut down to fit the two frames. I figure we can make good use of them.

The paint dried surprisingly quickly, but when I tried to put the chalkboards into the frames they were too big! I should have seen this one coming. It actually ended up working in our favor. We went back to Home Depot a week or so later and they cut the boards down perfectly. We got even more scraps to make into MORE chalkboards. Right now we have 6 chalkboards for about nine bucks (the cost of the plywood).

The only part of this project that stumped me a bit was how to attach the wood to the frames. These frames had no backings, so there was nothing to hold the chalkboards in place (or keep them from flopping out). I have to recommend, for starters, bringing the frames to Home Depot (or Lowe's or whatever store you choose to buy wood from). This allowed the employee using the wood cutter to cut up the plywood perfectly since he could keep comparing against the frame (at least this worked the second time around). Secondly, since we used such flimsy plywood in order to keep them light for travel, I was afraid that hammering a nail straight through the sides would splinter the wood. Instead, I hammered nails into the frames that act as clips to keep the backs in their place.

 

 Hammer a nail up and into the frame while lightly pushing down on the board

Here's the nail acting as a clip to keep the board in place 

The tension created between the nail and the wood is keeping the chalkboards firmly in place. With that I was finished! 

Our program chalkboard (instead of paper programs)

Our chalkboard menu that will be displayed as guests enter the reception area 

A test run on one of the "scrap chalkboards"  

 

Impromptu thank you sign from our second round of scraps

So, how do you like them? Do you plan on using chalkboards at your wedding?

Paper vs. Chalk

I love all things paper. When I was a kid I was always way too into my back-to-school supply shopping; I love roaming around the stationary/journal section of bookstores; and I still prefer a paper list to a digital one, but paper products can be pricey! When it comes to the wedding I have been looking a lot into chalkboards. It goes perfectly with the rustic feel of our venue.

Source

Image via Wedding Chicks / Photography by Emily Faulknor

 

Image via Something Blue Brides / Photo by Heather Neckers

Image via The Knot 

Grey Likes Weddings / Photo by Krista Mason

We are definitely going to have a menu chalkboard. Since all of the dinner choices will be decided upon when invites go out there will be no need for menu cards. A chalkboard menu displayed at the venue entrance will do the trick at refreshing everyone's memory on what they are about to eat. We are still undecided on the chalkboard seating chart.

I can already hear my grandma: What's this smudge?? *licks finger and erases everyone at her table*

How are you planning on wrangling all the different paper aspects of your wedding?