If you've ever rushed around the house, looking in vain for your keys or for a pen to take a message, you'll appreciate the thinking behind this homemade message center. Adding cup hooks and a ribbon tie to a simple crafts-store chalkboard will make it the first and last place you need to look.

Tools and Materials
9 3/4-by-12 1/2-inch chalkboard with unfinished wood frame
Five 3/4-inch cup hooks
Ruler
Awl
Drill fitted with a 1/8-inch bit
20-inch length of ribbon or twine
Waxed twine
Chalk
Small screw-eye
Wooden-handled eraser
Binder clips

Ribbon Chalkboard with Key Hooks How-To
1. On the front side of the chalkboard, measure 1 inch in from the edge of the frame. Starting from this point, use an awl to mark 5 evenly spaced holes, about 2 inches apart, along the chalkboard's bottom. Screw 5 cup hooks into these holes.

2. On the top side of the frame, measure 3 inches in from the edge of the frame on the right and left sides. Mark the 2 holes with an awl. Using an drill fitted with a 1/8-inch bit, make 2 holes where the wood is marked.

3. Thread the ribbon or twine through the holes, and knot it at the back of the chalkboard. This will create a hanging loop for the chalkboard.

4. Decide where you want to hang the chalkboard, and measure a point 7 inches above it. Since the hanger will show, choose an attractive picture hanger, hook, or nail, attach it to the wall, and hang chalkboard.

5. Tie a piece of waxed twine around a piece of chalk, and tie it to one of the cup hooks. Insert a small screw eye into the end of a wooden-handled eraser, so it can also be hung on a hook. Binder clips that hold grocery lists and notes can be hung from hooks as well.