Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Chalkboard Popcorn Buckets

At my sister-in-law's baby shower, my other sister-in-law and I wanted to offer several different flavors of popcorn as snacks and take-home favors for our guests.  I had seen the idea on Pinterest where people used large glass jars and labeled them, but I didn't really want to shell out the money for additional glass jars.  I mentioned to my mom that I saw some cute plastic popcorn buckets at the Dollar Tree.  They were a good size, but I really wanted to be able to label the different flavors in a cute way.  My mom, being the genius she is, immediately suggested chalkboard paint.


 I decided to give it a whirl, but I left one side as is, just in case the chalkboard paint didn't work.


I started by tracing an oval shape on clear contact paper and cutting it out.  I cut my oval slightly smaller than the oval on the bucket.


After pressing the contact paper down, I masked off the rest of the bucket with paper and painter's tape.  I first sprayed a coat of plastic primer on the bucket.  Then, I did a very light coat of spray chalkboard paint.
Here's what I had after the second coat.  I thought it was looking pretty good until I pulled the contact paper off.

 I quickly realized that my masking job wasn't so good. I had a lot of overspray and some of the paint had seeped under the contact paper.  I started wiping it off with some Goo Gone on a paper towel and, much to my pleasant surprise, it all came off!  I was even able to touch up around the oval with the edge of paper towel.

I'm guessing that since those areas didn't have the plastic primer, it made the paint almost wipe right off.  I let the chalkboard paint cure for a few days before writing on it.  After the shower, I hand washed the buckets and the chalkboard labels held up just fine!

1 comment:

  1. Great idea for fun, inexpensive party decor!

    I bought a few of these popcorn buckets for popcorn parties in my classroom and they held up really well.

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