Chalkboard Labels by Martha Stewart and Avery Exclusively at Staples

These Chalkboard labels by Martha Stewart and Avery are exclusive to Staples, and before purchasing them, I was admittedly a bit concerned as to how they might work, as I’m sure many of you might be.  Also, before we get started, just a warning that some of these pictures might look like they are meant for a cooking blog, but I assure you they are my own and I wont try to tell you how to cook on these pages…ever.

Chalkboard Labels by Martha Stewart and Avery on a Ceramic Canister

Something about these labels made me feel the need to use them in a kitchen environment, but I couldn’t leave my office supply geekiness out, so I figured I would pretend that I keep my pens in a ceramic canister for the sake of doing some testing here.  The pack of these that I grabbed came with 12 chalkboard labels that measure 2.5″ x 3.75″ each, and they have scallop cut corners for a nice decorative touch.  One of my first tests with these was to see what happened when I constantly removed and re-applied the label on the ceramic surface.  It took me about 40 removals and reapplications of the label before I realized that I could probably do this all day without having any issues…very impressive.  The only issue I noticed was that with the constant peeling off, I did do some slight damage to the corner of the label, however it was not bad at all, and could probably be avoided.  Another thing that was a nice surprise was that even with the continual movement of the label, the chalk writing stayed very legible, and basically only lightened up a bit.

Chalkboard Labels by Martha Stewart and Avery on a Cardboard Binder

With the impressive performance of the label adhesive on the ceramic canister, I figured I would try something a bit more challenging, like this cardboard binder.  Even on the cardboard surface, it took about 20 add/remove repetitions before the adhesive seemed to start losing its grip, and even then it was still pretty sticky.  I think that both of these tests were a bit extreme, but they prove the point to me that for about 99% of all situations these can be used and re-used with no problem.

Chalkboard Labels after Frequent Re-sticking

If you take a close look at the image above you can see a few things:

1. Just below where the label is, you can actually see a shadow of the word “Taxes” which was because I wrote on the label after it was placed on the binder.  The extra pressure of the chalk pressing into the adhesive backing onto the cardboard obviously made it stick a bit more, resulting in additional cardboard coming off when I pulled the label off the first time.
2. On the bottom left corner cut out, you can see where I was peeling it up, and it did end up getting slightly damaged, but again this was with what I would consider a bit extreme use.
3. Although the text is still there and very legible, you can see that it has faded slightly, but the good news and impressive part about that is that this is even after rubbing it several times with my hands…which might lead you to wonder how easy these might be to erase?  The good news is that they are EASY to erase.  A simple wet cloth wipes the label clean as if it was never used.

Overall I was very impressed with these Chalkboard labels by Martha Stewart and Avery.  Not only is the chalkboard look really cool, but the reusable nature of the surface AND the adhesive make these a very practical option for 100s of different labeling and organizational needs.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.