chalkboard art

Blogging about crafting takes a minute or two.

Especially when I forget to take photos of all the steps the first time around

and end up redoing something similar to share with you.

It is so worth it, tho'.

I hope you'll agree when you finally hit the end of this post.

 

About a year ago I picked up an old frame from a yard sale with the intention of doing something fun with it. A year later it was still sitting in the garage. It didn't have glass, just a heavy cardboard picture of something I didn't want hanging anywhere in my house. It got moved around the garage anytime I felt the urge to clean. It got nearly tossed out many times.

 

Nearly two weeks ago we had a special wedding celebration and wanted a sign for behind the bridal table at the reception. Alyx came up with this idea and I hopped to work.

 

First I took the "picture" out of the frame and using chalkboard paint I painted several coats on both sides. I wasn't sure which side I wanted to use and thought it could at some point be reversible.

 

 

The frame was old looking and needed to turn silver. I'm still working on using up that hammered silver spray paint can, so outside it went on a sunny day. I know. Nearly every day is sunny around here!  Hung to spray and flipped when dry to spray the other side.

This is where we move on to the extra project to show you what I did. Using Microsoft Word and a free fun font downloaded from dafont[dot]com, get your writing into a document, print it and cut it to size. My first project was rather large and involved actually taping together about 4 8.5x11 pieces of paper to get the entire message printed.

Once your message is printed, turn it upside down. Using chalk, chalk over the reverse side of the paper on the writing until everything you want on your chalkboard is covered with chalk.

 

After blowing off the excess chalk lay the paper onto your chalkboard surface and, using some kind of pointed instrument, trace over the writing so that the chalk is transferred to the chalked surface. I outlined the words, not filling in everything at this point.

 

This project is a dollar store little silver tray that I painted with chalkboard paint.

Unfortunately, I didn't prep this surface the right way because the chalk comes off if you hit it the right way with a piece of chalk. Anyway, fill in the chalk outline with even more chalk. Add some doodles if you want or just leave it plain.

 

Back to the original project here! Before I talked to the talented and knowledgable Kim, I started spraying my chalk project with polyurethane to preserve the chalk. It started disappearing and I sort of freaked out. Then I talked to Kim who gave me great tips. I didn't have time to make my project permanent as it was heading out of town the next day, but I brought it home afterward and have finished it. In order to preserve the printing on the chalkboard, I sprayed with poly and then rechalked over it all. I sprayed again ... and rechalked again. Sprayed again .....

I think I did it three for four times.

 

I thought that we could hang it so added a ribbon in the wedding color. The hanging didn't work out, but the sign did. The wedding was beautiful and the project was a lot of fun!

Love the chalkboard look ... and the loving message from the groom to his bride.