Make Life Lovely: DIY Reusable Chalkboard Labels + Giveaway!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to 2013. You may have noticed that I took a week off from blogging to spend some quality time with my family. I am excited to share many more projects and crafts with you this new year, and want to start off with a great organizing idea I came up with. Now that the Christmas decorations are all put away, my husband and I are on a mission to organize and thoroughly cleaning our house, and it feels GREAT!

I have a lot of Pottery Barn sea grass baskets in our home to organize our things. I love how durable they are, but I don't love that there isn't a place to label them. I am in love my label machine, and feel kind of sad when a container doesn't have a label on it. Yes, I am totally serious. SO, I came up with a way to label my baskets so that I (and the rest of the family) can remember what goes inside each one.

Reusable Chalkboard Labels! These are easy to make, easy to erase, and can be relabeled and reused.

Wanna' make your own?

You'll need the items pictured above, plus a hole punch, chalk, and some twine, ribbon, or string.

1. Punch holes in your chipboard shapes. I had some chipboard in my scrapbook stash, so I used those, but you could also use wood rounds like I used for my wood advent calendar coins, or thick cardboard or anything else that is durable enough and can be hole punched and painted. Be creative!

2. Paint the chalkboard paint onto your tags following the manufacturer's directions. I used Martha Stewart Crafts Chalkboard Paint, because I am a sucker for anything that has Martha's name on it :)

3. Label your tags by writing onto them with chalk. Make a mistake? No problem, just erase with a slightly damp paper towel.

4. Measure the twine, jute, or ribbon to your desired length, cut, and string through the hole in the tag. Tie tag to your basket, and tie a knot. DONE!

Now stand back and admire your amazing organization skills! After I finished the kids' baskets on their bookshelf, I realized I had more baskets in my kitchen cupboard, so I labeled those. Then I remembered I had more in the laundry room. Then the entertainment center. So I went a little label crazy, and I'm loving the results. I hope you give these Reusable Chalkboard Labels a try!

AND, because I love Martha Stewart and I love labels, I'm giving away a mega set of 16 packages of Martha Stewart labels, all to one lucky reader!! (This is not a sponsored post, I bought all of these labels myself because I love them and want to share the love :)

Here's how to enter the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment below telling me the one area in your home that needs to be organized the most.

2. For a second entry, you can follow Make Life Lovely on Facebook and post a link to this giveaway (or to your favorite post on Make Life Lovely), and leave a comment telling me you did so.

3. For a third entry, follow me on Pinterest and pin any project on Make Life Lovely, and leave a comment telling me you did so.

Easy enough, right?

This giveaway will close on Sunday, January 6th at 11:59 pm. The random winner will be announced on Monday, January 7th, and will be sent a lovely little set of 16 packages of Martha Stewart labels. Think of all the fun you could have organizing with all those labels!

If you need more organization help, check out my post on How to Organize All Those Ripped Out Magazine Pages that you know you have lying around ;)