Writings on the Wall – the Blog

Archive for the ‘Homemade’ Category

After all of the orders had been filled and packages packed and shipped, it was time to spend a little time on some fun projects for me.

I’ve seen different variations of chalkboards and figured that these would be just perfect for Christmas gifts for the munchkins. Well.., my niece Jacky isn’t exactly a munchkin any more, but every girl likes to doodle on a chalkboard, so I started with hers.

First of all…
I visited the hardware store (Lowe’s) and purchased some 1/8″ hardboard.  A 4 x 8 sheet cut into 24 x 33″ rectangles gave me 6 pieces for about $7.00.  The friendly guy at Lowe’s cut the board for me, so I walked out the door with 6 perfect pieces of wood tucked under my arm.
I also grabbed a can of chalkboard paint. I have used the spray-paint kind which works very well, but the quart container that you brush on will go much further and is a little more economical if you are doing many boards or a large board or wall.
And… some 1 x 2″ boards for the frame. They run about $2.00 for an 8 foot length.  I dug through to make sure I got some nice straight and not too knotty looking pieces.
Walked out of the store feeling like I had scored bit time.

So then…
I cranked the stereo up really loud, and went to work.

Paint and a foam brush and that's all I need.

Chalkboard after the first coat...

Foam brushes are my favorite for applying water based paints and the chalkboard paint is waterbase. It takes two coats per board and I should tell you now… I applied the first coat the day before so that it would have plenty of time to dry.
Then…
I slipped back into my wood cutting room and made use of my trusty table saw. A jigsaw or even a hand saw will work too. I cut the top strips 25″ long so that they would overhang the edges and side strips are 29″ long – give or take.
A little sanding to take off any splintery pieces and they’re ready to paint.

Painting the edge pieces

I spray painted using some cans of Krylon that were left from other projects. So we have magenta, tan and red. Paint the front and sides of the wood strips.
Two coats is adaquate for coverage and fumes. (Love those paint fumes!)

Placing and gluing the edges

After the paint had all dried, I squeezed glue (love me some Aileen’s Tacky Glue, but any wood glue will work) all around the outside edge of the blackboard.  Place the top and bottom  pieces in place, then the side pieces. Push everything together so they meet up fairly tight.

Just a note— I am not a master carpenter and these are not even remotely fine cabinetry, so the measurements aren’t exactly perfectly accurate and there may or may not be tiny gaps where the boards meet.  I don’t think anybody cares.

So then…
Let the glue set up while you have lunch and make some phone calls to your friends and then CAREFULLY turn the boards over and hammer in some little finishing nails to hold everything all securely together.  I put a couple in each corner and then one about every 4 inches.  Be sure that your nails aren’t so long that they go all the way through the wood and out the other side. Just sayin’.

Attach two alligator teeth hangers to the top edge and flip it back over.

I snagged some of these very cute painted wood characters at Walmart for about 50 cents each just to use for these boards. I stuck one on a top corner (covered the little gappy place just perfectly. You know, where the wood doesn’t quite meet up.)

Since I just happen to have access to the stuff… I cut each child’s name out of vinyl and stuck ‘em on the top. It was the perfect finishing touch.

Cute Vinyl Letters

My little cuties!

All together I spent about $25.00  and a couple of hours of my time for four darling chalkboards – very cheap therapy indeed.

The kids loved them and I still have enough wood and paint to make a few more. Yay me!

This is a busy little place this time of year. I guess that’s no surprise, since everywhere is busy this time of year.
Busy-ness, however, didn’t stop me from enjoying Thanksgiving day with friends and family.

After stuffing our faces with way too much excellent food, tables were cleared and it was time to bring out the craft projects.

Last year we started what I believe will become a tradition by making a home made ornament for the tree.
So this year we did it again.
The ornaments were very simple and not too polished looking, but that’s the point. Most of my crafters are under the age of 10, so I wanted something that was quick and easy and not too terribly complicated to make.

I printed a pretty snowflake pattern onto cardstock, then cut them into 3.5″ squares to be glued on to 4″ hardboard squares.  One on each side. I spray painted the edges of the wood with flat black spraypaint and drilled a hole in one corner for stringing the ribbon before gluing the paper.
A little glitter to make it sparkly, and a pretty ribbon and… voila!

Then I gathered up my stuff and hurried off before my hosts realized that I had infected them with red and gold glitter throughout their house.

And now… to dazzle and amaze you, here’s a picture of last year’s ornament.

Yeah… those are vinyl letters on a big plastic Christmas ball that I got at my friendly neighborhood really overcrowded Walmart.

Just in case you are jealous of my spiffy stick-on letters and snowflakes…

You can have some of them too. All you gotta do is give me a call.
Or drop an email.