Writings on the Wall – the Blog

Archive for December, 2009

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!

Poor Mr. UPS came dragging through our door tonight at 7:00 to pick up the last of our packages all taped and labeled and ready to go.

Whew!!!
Christmas is a blessing every year for us, but it’s also a 3 month marathon of phone calls, designing, cutting, weeding, taping and packing into boxes. I love the busy-ness, and crazy as it may seem… I love the crazyness too.
Nothing gets your adrenaline flowing like realizing that you have 30 minutes to get an all important huge (or small) order finished and in a box with a label before the UPS man comes. (Nothing prompts the phone to ring like being in a rush to get things packed either)
We have the timing to get to the Post Office by 4:45 almost down to the exact second.
Both the UPS guys and the ladies at the Post Office are always so accommodating… can’t thank them enough.

Now…
Tomorrow I have a few local orders to fill and then some Christmas gifts of my own to make. There’s the last minute call or two from someone in a panic because they were silly and didn’t plan.
Oh well. We’ll take care of them as best we can.
It used to make me really angry that people would do that. How dare they assume that I would be able to drop whatever I’m doing to bail them out of a bind because they failed to plan? The very nerve!

Maybe wisdom does come with age, or perhaps it’s tolerance.
These last few years I’ve merely come to expect last minute emergencies and in fact, we plan for it. People are always going to fail to plan and losing my cool just makes the situation worse.
So unless you’re expecting a miracle…. bring it on. We’ll try to take care of you.

What a great day!

I had a chance to take an hour out of the day and take my dad to lunch.
Today was his 75th birthday, and even though I see him almost every day, sometimes twice a day, I don’t often take the time and opportunity to tell him what a great dad he’s been to me.

We went to the restaurant just down the street and enjoyed the lunch special and a chance to visit for a while.
I had to smile. My dad is a big guy, but he’s a regular there and evidently well liked cuz the waitress kept calling him Teddy Bear.
Yep, that’s my dad.

I don’t have a fancy layout for this one, but it sums it up very well:

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.

It’s the middle of the night and I am bleary eyed and holding my breath in hopes that all the re-direct pages do their job. Guess I’ll find out soon enough, eh?

So…
If you’ve been to Writings on the Wall and it doesn’t look very much like this blog, go back and hit your refresh button a couple of times to reload the page so that the new stuff will all come popping up to dazzle your eyes.

I can’t wait to get all of our layouts and kits and stuff loaded up… it’s amazing how time consuming it all is. But I’m workin’ on it.

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.