Easy Chalkboard Lettering Tutorial

Hello friends! I feel like it has been so long since I sat down and wrote a blog post. I hope you all had a great 4th of July! I had a wonderful week with my family. We took a much needed vacation to Wisconsin and stayed in the cutest lake town. I hope to show you some pictures soon of my little vacation. I did  want to share a little tutorial with you today on how to transfer any type of font onto a chalkboard. 

Way back in 2010 I bought this frame from Goodwill! I painted the back of the picture with chalkboard paint and flipped it around to the front of the frame. I have been using it to decorate for all of the different seasons and it usually stays on top of the fireplace mantel.

I really love chalkboards, but I have always had a love/hate relationship with mine because of my handwriting. You would never guess this from the girl who got the handwriting award two years in a row in elementary school. Hee hee! Anyway, you wouldn't think writing on a chalkboard would be any different. Well maybe for some people it's not different but for this girl it is!

I have really been trying to think of a way to make the lettering on the chalkboards look better. I just could not do another post with my crappy writing so in the words of Oprah I had an "Ah Ha" moment. Let's go back in time (ok not too far back) let's say a few months ago. Do you remember my library book wall tutorial? Well, I decided to use the same method on my chalkboard. 

The first thing I did was print out my saying for my chalkboard and laid it out on the chalkboard.I used the same font that I used in my Neverland sign from my book wall. I just love this saying "It is Well with My Soul". Here is a little history on the saying if you are interested in where it came from, it is actually a lyric to a hymn. 

After I had my words laid out on my chalkboard and marked where they were going I flipped over the paper and started rubbing the chalk on the back.

I then flipped the paper back over (words facing you) and placed it on the chalkboard. I then took a pencil and started tracing the letters onto the chalkboard. You might have to go over the letters a few times to make the chalk transfer.

(I apologize for the quality of this picture, I am a mom who has to craft after the babe is in bed)

After I had the letters traced I then started filling the letters in with chalk. A good tip is to sharpen your chalk, it will make your life so much easier.

Here is the final results. I think it turned out fairly well! The perfectionist in me wanted to go back and fix a bazillion things, but I then thought to myself I think chalk looks better with a little imperfection.

Please come back and visit me tomorrow for an awesome giveaway!

You can find me on... Facebook, Pinterest &  Instagram if you would like to follow more of my projects.

 
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Color Block Plant Stakes

Hello to all of my awesome readers! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. I am sitting here enjoying the beautiful sun shining through my window. It's a little on the cool side outside today but still nice enough to go for a walk or bike ride. It has been such a mild summer for us so far and I am not complaining one bit. I have also been enjoying my little herb garden that I shared with you a few weeks ago. One of the things I did for my herb garden was create plant stakes to identify each herb. I am sure you have seen the trend of color blocking, right? I just adore the look on outfits and bags, but not brave enough to try it on a wall. I thought it would be kind of cool to give some chalkboard paint a little color block.

This is a five minute craft I did while my daughter was sleeping. 

I found these popsicle sticks at the Dollar Tree.

The first thing I did was paint the popsicle stick with the chalkboard paint.  I then used some painters tape to cover up the chalkboard paint after it dried.  Then I spray painted the tips with the same spray paint from this project. 

Once all the paint was dried I pulled off the tape and there you have it folks a color block plant stake...easy peasy! 

By the way, did you know you can sharpen chalk? I didn't either...I saw it on Pinterest. I just used my regular old plastic pencil sharpener. It has been a life changing moment now that I have sharp chalk. Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic, but it has made my life easier. 

I wrote on the stakes with my life changing sharpened chalk and popped them in my topsy turvy herb garden. Who says gardening doesn't have to be stylish? 

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Chalkboard for the Babe!

I can't believe I might actually have some weekly posts. Go me!!!  I have had this project done for over a year now but have not had a chance to post pics. My husband made this beautiful chalkboard for my daughter before she was born. We just used some plywood, some trim and chalkboard paint to put it together. You can really use anything to make a chalkboard. I wanted something custom fit because I was huge pregnant and I didn't have time nor the energy to go to garage sales to find a frame. I am pretty happy with how it all turned out!

I made the bunting to drape over the top. I will have to do a tutorial on that someday. It is easy squeezy to make! 

These chalk holders are made from cheap gold/brass cabinet door handles. I saw this idea on Pinterest forever ago. I am sorry I can't take the credit for this idea. You can find the handles at Lowes or any home improvement store. 

Photo courtesy of sears.com

I painted the handles using Krylons Ocean Breeze spray paint from Walmart and then used Gorilla Glue to attach them to the chalkboard.


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A Patriotic Table Makeover

I got this table for free (bonus) and saw lots of potential for it. I'm guessing it's about 50 to 60 years old. It came from my grandparents house. It was painted a dark red on the top and the legs were dark blue. I first had to sand and prime the table. I then painted it with white semi-gloss, exterior house and trim paint from ACE Hardware (my favorite place to buy paint). The front is painted with (you guessed it) chalkboard paint. And in honor of Memorial Day I drew an American flag. I think after Memorial Day I am going to probably put our house number on it or our last name. I love chalkboard paint because I can change my mind a million times on what I want to display. I hope you all had a nice weekend! 

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