Chalkboard & Silver Pinecone Ornaments by Beth at The Stories of A to Z {Ornament No.1}

I am delighted to introduce
Beth from The Stories of A to Z

Chalkboard & Silver Pinecones
{Handmade Ornament No. 1}
Welcome... Beth!



At the end of last January, I featured Stephanie Lynn's playroom vignette on my blog and said these exact words (in this post),"Everything Stephanie Lynn does is amazing. She is blogland's best kept secret. Go tour around her blog. You won't be disappointed." Well, I must say that it has been a thrill to watch this year as the secret of Stephanie Lynn has been revealed! I'm so honored to be a guest blogger for her today.

For those who don't know me, I'm Beth from The Stories of A to Z, soon to be Home Stories A to Z, and I am passionate about creating beauty out of life's chaos and sharing the stories with you! Below are some pictures of projects I've recently done. I'd love it if you stopped by sometime and chose to follow along.


How to Make Chalkboard & Silver Pinecone Ornaments
Today we're going to make some cute ornaments that are so easy you're going to laugh at the beautiful simplicity of it all!
For this project you will need:

Cheap (or old) Christmas ball ornaments

Pinecones

Chalkboard spray paint

Chalkboard marker or chalk

Silver spray paint. (I really like Sterling Silver paint by Chase. You can find it at AC Moore or K-mart. Use your 40% AC Moore coupon though because it's pricey stuff but worth it.)

Beading wire

Here's a random tip for you: Target is currently selling the packs of plastic ornaments in their Dollar Spot in red, silver, and blue. Go today if you want some because I know they'll sell out fast! I bought a bunch to decorate my porch and hopefully it will look something like this when I'm done.


Credit: Pottery Barn
The first thing you'll do is spray paint your ornament balls with your chalkboard paint. I found that placing my ornaments on wooden skewers in plastic cups worked well to cover the entire circumference with paint. That was until a strong gust of wind came along and blew them over. Gah!


So, I then moved to sticking the skewers in my mulch. My mulch is black, so a little chalkboard paint only freshened things up a bit!


While you're waiting for your ornaments to dry, go attack your pinecones with a little silver paint.


The photo below doesn't do these babies justice. The paint is uber shiny and metallic looking and goes on like buttah. It dries fast to boot which is awesome if you're as impatient as I am.


Once your ornaments are completely dry, you are done! Now go Christmas-ify something in your home! I chose to use these beauties in a $5 wreath that I picked up from a discount chain called Ollies. I attached the ornaments to the wreath using beading wire (which can be found in the jewelry aisle of the craft store). Then, I wrote some Christmasy words on my ornaments with a chalkboard marker.


Isn't it cute? Seriously what doesn't look cute with chalkboard paint on it? Hmmmm. Don't answer that. Because if you saw my nasty black fingernails and hands after this project was complete you would have your answer.


And because I know many of you drool over the 100 year old brick walls in my home, I've included this pic just for you :).

I hope I've inspired some of you to make these cuties this year! Come check me out for some other easy ornament ideas and Christmas inspiration!


Thank you Beth for sharing these adorable ornaments; I love them nestled in the festive wreath and can't wait to see your finished porch!

I'll be back in a few hours with our next guest blogger along with ornament no. 2;

in the meantime mosey over to The Stories of A to Z and say 'hi' to Beth!


She is way ahead of the game and recently decorated a tree in her backyard for the upcoming season with the cutest fresh lemons, cut out butterflies and flower filled paper cones {found here}. I just adore the yellow, black and white color scheme ~ too cute!


There is much more to come ~ Enjoy!