Christmas Home Chalk Board by Amanda Jones

I don't know about you, but as soon as the Christmas season comes along, my memory leaves the building! With such a huge amount of things to get done, I wanted a decorative but practical way to keep on top of things. So I decided to turn this:

Into this:

Now I have a pretty and functional decor piece!

Firstly I marked out the area I needed to avoid covering using a piece of tracing paper.

I then had a template I could use when cutting and tearing my patterned papers to paste around the edges.

Next I grabbed a pile of Christmas home papers (this is a great way to use up pieces left over from other projects!)

And started tearing them into pieces, roughly the same size, to collage with.

Next, using mod podge, I started layering them around the outside of my chalkboard, carefully cutting the inside to fit the frame using my tracing paper template.

At this point the inside was neat but there were lots of layers of paper overhanging the outside.

So I flipped it over to trim the excess away...

And sanded the edges to neaten them up...

Then ran a distress ink pad around the edge to blend.

And here's what I ended up with! Then I added a few simple pinwheels, a bit of ribbon and lots of glitter. 

Now I can't wait to have a list to write on here! Bring on the chaos!

**I should also let you know that today is the last day to take advantage of the great opportunity to purchase the LIMITED Edition Silhouette Advent Calendar, click HERE for information and promotional code.**