I know it is only the end of September but I am already thinking about Christmas and I love to give handmade gifts. I am participating in a Bazaar this year, which will take place in only 2 1/2 weeks so I started working on preparing the gifts to finish on time.
I decided to use the same method I explained in the latest Quilting Arts Gifts magazine (page 73) to do these chalkboard ornaments.
Let me show you how I did it:

Iron on fusible webbing on the wrong side of the "treated newsprint" (I used steam-a-seam lite). Draw your design. In this case, I used a star and drew a circle in the middle with the paper still on. Cut around each shape. With the help of a craft knife, cut the middle.

Cut a circle from your chalkboard fabric, use the circle you cutted out for a guide as shown in the next picture. I painted the chalkboard fabric and will explain how to do it in a future post but I learned the other day that you can buy this kind of fabric ready.

Put the chalkboard fabric behind the circle and choose a fabric for the backing. Iron from the back. Try to choose a hand-dyed fabric or a batik, this way you will not have white edges around your design.

Cut around, make a hole on the top, pass a string through it and decorate with a ribbon to cover the knot.
Now comes the fun part: write your message. Did you know that you can sharpen the chalk sticks with a manual sharpener?
If you make a mistake, wipe it with a wet cloth or a baby wipe. If you are happy with your message and don't want it to rub off, cover it with acrylic medium (I used matte medium).

Have fun doing crafts from recyclable materials!
I'd love to spark your creativity at one of my *Workshops: Painting and learning how to work with paper and fabric* You can read for my coming workshops HERE