Two years ago my oldest “baby” graduated from high school and in typical Hawaiian fashion we had a big graduation party. Hawaiian style graduation parties are built around friends and family bringing pot luck dishes. To make sure that all the guests could I identify each dish we made these super easy DIY chalkboard labels for my daughter’s party.

We made these DIY Chalkboard labels from black card stock paper, but you could also use black construction paper. Using black paper means you can make these chalkboard style labels for pennies. I used a chalk marker that I already had to keep the text from being to smudge-y.
Easy DIY Chalkboard Labels

I made larger labels to identify drinks in each of the different coolers. I simply cut labels and used a corner rounder to round off the corners of the rectangles.

I used a paper punch to punch out smaller labels for each dish and pitchers of drinks. I punched extra labels out so that I could label new dishes that were brought when our friends arrived with their dishes. Having the blank labels available meant we could quickly share each dish as it arrived by labeling it and immediately putting it out on the serving tables.

We placed small pieces of double-stick tape on the back of each label to keep it in place. It was also easy to move on our plastic tables if we needed to move dishes around as more arrived with new guests.

With my second “baby” graduating this spring, I’ll be using this frugal DIY chalkboard labels idea for our party.
More party ideas:
Seana Turner says
Very cute idea. I think guests really appreciate knowing what everything is. Especially with all of the food allergies, intolerances, and dietary issues that are around today. Congratulations to the graduate!
susan says
Thanks, Seana. I agree that labels help guests with allergies and preferences. I know I sure appreciate them when I’m the guest. 🙂
Andrea says
I love labeling, and think guests appreciate it at parties! Love this labeling idea!
susan says
Labeling is helpful (and lots of fun), isn’t it, Andrea. 🙂