DIY: Give Thanks Chalkboard Wall Plaque with Wire Ribbon Bow (tutorial)

November 16, 2013

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I love crafting. Don’t you? There is nothing I love more on a Saturday night than crafting a new project. As a part of the Walmart Moms, I was asked to share a Thanksgiving Craft with you all. Going into this craft I knew I wanted something that my family and I could write what we are thankful for on. So with the giftcard provided I went to my local Walmart to find the supplies I needed to make a Give Thanks Chalkboard Wall Plaque.

I picked up the following supplies at my local Walmart:

9×12 wooden plaque- $4.97
Chalkboard Spray Paint- $3.67
9ft. of Glittered Wire Ribbon- $2.97

I also needed these other supplies that I already had on hand. If you don’t have these supplies they can also be found at Walmart.

X-acto knife
Pencil
Metallic Painters Paint Pen (Walmart now carries these in their craft department)
Wreath Wire Tie
Stencils for lettering or make your own stencil

The first step of this project was to spray both the front and the back of our wooden plaque with chalkboard spray paint and allow to dry completely for 24 hours. I loved the way the wood plaque from Walmart looked painted with chalkboard paint. With a blank canvas like this wooden plaque I’m already thinking of other future crafting projects. Maybe a craft for a Christmas gift?

After spray painting was complete, the next step is to paint whatever phrase you would like onto the front of the now painted wooden plaque. I chose the phrase “Give Thanks” because each word that we write with chalk around this phrase I wanted to be something that we are thankful for. Walmart carries some stencils in their store but I wanted a specific kind of script to my lettering. Since I’m not too confident in my ability to freehand it, I decided to create my own stencil by first printing my choosen phrase onto a piece of matte, photo paper. I then used an X-Acto knife to cut out the lettering leaving a stencil. With the stencil centered in the middle of my chalkboard plaque I used a pencil to careful outline where the letters should be written. After all of the letters were outlined in pencil I then filled them in with a Metallic Gold Painters Paint Pen (available at Walmart). These paint pens make “painting” letters a breeze, much easier than a paint brush. After the entire phrase was painted, I then allowed that to dry as I began the next step in our Give Thanks Chalkboard Wall Plaque.

The next step in our craft is to make a wire ribbon bow. Making a bow can be intimidating but just like anything else it requires practice. There are lots of tutorials and even videos available online to help. Below are the steps I took to create the wire ribbon bow for my craft using 9 ft. of glittered, wire ribbon I found at Walmart.

How-to Make a Wire Ribbon Bow

1. Remove ribbon from spool. At one end of the ribbon, fold over to make one curl of the bow holding the tail of the ribbon in the center.
2. Switch hands holding the center and create another loop with the ribbon on the opposite side.
3. Switch hands again, holding the center of the ribbon/the middle where all of the loops meet. To make the next loop in the ribbon, first twist the ribbon coming from the opposite side so that the glittery side is up. Make another loop a little bit larger than our first loop and hold the end in the center of the bow.
4. Switch hands, remembering to continually hold the center of the bow where all of loops meet. Twist the ribbon again, in the back of the bow so that the glitter side is facing you and make another loop on the opposite side slightly larger than our first loop we created on that side.
5. We are going to make another loop exactly the same as the one we created on the opposite side. Just like before twist the ribbon in the back of the bow, holding the center of the bow with one hand and make another loop bringing the end to the center of the bow. We should now have 3 loops on one side and two on the other.
6. Twist the ribbon in the back again so that the glitter side is facing you and make a third loop on the opposite side bringing the end to the center of the ribbon and holding all of the ribbon loops together with the opposite hand.

The last loop of our ribbon we want in the center of the 3 loops on the opposite side, so first twist the ribbon in the back just like before so that the glitter side is showing and make another loop directly behind and slightly larger than our very first loop.
Switch the hands that are holding the center of the bow and repeat on the other side remembering to twist the ribbon so that the glitter is showing and holding the center of the bow.
Lastly, to make our center bow, the end of our last loop should be being held by one hand. Twist the ribbon so that the glitter is facing away from you and the ribbon is hanging down from the center of the bow. Bring the ribbon up and over the center of the bow but do not let go of the ribbon loops just yet.
To secure our ribbon and keep it from coming undone take a piece of floral wire or coated wire twist tie and run it diagonally from the top, through the middle of the center loop, to the opposite bottom corner. Flip the bow over, still holding the middle, and twist the two ends together making sure that all parts of the bow are secured beneath the wire and that no ends will pop out causing the bow to become undone.
Finish the wire ribbon bow by moving and “fluffing” the loops to your desired shape. Cut off the remaining ribbon making sure that the twist tie is tight enough and the end of the ribbon is long enough where it won’t come out of the tie.

After our bow is complete, to complete the chalkboard wall plaque take the leftover ribbon and feed it through the wire tie on the back of the wire ribbon bow so that there are equal amounts of ribbon on either side. Flip your chalkboard plaque over to the back and place the ribbon hanging from the wire ribbon bow equal distance apart and secure with staples or strong glue.

Your Thanksgiving craft is complete and ready to be hung on the wall. A neat idea would be to have everyone in the family think of something that they are thankful for and write it on the chalkboard plaque with chalk all around the word “Give Thanks”. Hanging on a wall or a door, this Give Thanks Chalkboard Wall Plaque gives a great reminder of what we are thankful for this holiday season.