Step-by-Step Chalk Writing tutorial - Complete with Pictures!!

Last year in May I made a chalkboard gift for my friend who was pregnant with her first baby, and it has been my most popular post to date. So today I made a similar picture for my mum, and I took photos each step of the way so you too can learn how to write in chalk and make it look beautiful!

My mom wanted a design similar to the back of this journal from Chapters Indigo, but I didn't want to copyright, so I chose my own fonts and used Pixelmator (love this app - like Adobe photoshop for Mac, but cheaper and simpler) to keep a similar design.

The banner and squiggly line looks weird because I actually used the picture I took of the back of the journal. Couldn't find anything similar that I liked as much as the original.

Blogger won't allow me to upload a file for you to download, so here is the picture I made, feel free to copy it/download it for your own use.

Okay so Step #1 - figure out your design, and make sure it's similar in size/proportions as your frame.

Step #2 - If your picture/frame is like mine (17.5''x23''), a regular size printer won't be able to print an image big enough. So what I did is crop the photo multiple times (into an 8''x10'' image to fit regular 8.5''x11'' paper) and print it out. 

Step #3 - Print out all your images and tape them together to make a giant picture that fits your frame.

**When I cropped the image on the computer, I made sure the images overlapped so it would make 
them easier to fit together, so I had to trim the separate images a bit. 

I taped my image onto the frame to make sure it would fit before moving onto the next step. 

 Step #4 - Flip the image over and trace the picture/drawing/saying in PENCIL. Like this…

(sorry for the dark image)

Step #5 - Once you've outlined your entire image in pencil, flip it over and tape it to your chalk board. Make sure it's exactly where you want it to be (probably centred). Then use your pencil and trace the letters again. What you're doing is rubbing off the pencil from the backside so that it creates an outline in pencil that you can use as a guide for your chalk.

  Once you have finished tracing your image, lift up a corner to make sure the pencil has transferred onto your chalk board. If it hasn't, you need to press down harder. Your chalk board should then look like this….

Step #6 - Before you trace the outline in chalk, sharpen it first. That's right. With a pencil sharpener. Having a pointed tip chalk is what gives you the beautiful designs and clean lines. 

You'll have to keep sharpening your chalk quite often, and you'll probably go through a few pieces. But the thin lines look oh so good. 

TIP: After you've finished with the chalk drawing, use a q-tip with water to clean up any smudges. 

FINAL PRODUCT:

Please let me know if you have any questions, I'd love to help you along the way!

You can also purchase the products I used by clicking on the links below, or by all means, improvise using what you have at home! :)

Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Paint

Crayola Chalk

Chalk sharpener - I recommend buying an eye/lipliner sharpener, because they usually come in 2 sizes to fit the larger pencils, and you'll need the larger size so that the chalk will fit. 

Favourite Time of the Year

Don't you just love this time of the year? The sun is shining, birds are chirping, peonies are in full bloom… ahhhhh… I just love it.

I realize that it's been a while since I've posted, but honestly, you know how it is. Life is busy. I haven't done a lot of blog worthy things, besides enjoying life with my family. :) I have, however, just completed a project that I wanted to share with you.

I saw this really cool Gold Leaf painted globe on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try. I was lucky cause this whole project only cost me $3.50.

Luckily, my parents had an old globe lying around that I could have. It was so old that there were a few countries that weren't correct, so I didn't mind painting over it.

I used black acrylic paint I had on hand and started to paint in the oceans. And no, I didn't prime it first (!). I tried to be as kind as I could to the little islands, I made sure not to paint over little places I have been, like Hawaii and Antigua and Barbuda. However, anything East of Australia was gone-zo. Sorry guys. 

I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, so it took me almost 2 hours to paint the entire thing.

Next up… I attempted to apply the gold leaf. Notice the underline? Yea… it didn't work out so well.

This little part of North America took FOREVER and it was quite frustrating. I could not get the gold leaf to stay on the edges well, and sometimes chunks in the middle of the gold leaf would fall off. And the flakes went everywhere! Luckily I was prepared and had laid scrap paper down to cover the area.

I was a little disheartened at this point. I didn't think I could keep going and still be happy with the finished product, so I headed back to Michaels to see if perhaps there was better quality gold leaf and adhesive I could buy.

That's when I found this little beauty.

And it was on sale for $2.99. Holla!! For that price, I thought it was worth a shot.
**Update - I can no longer find Liquid Leaf at Michaels, but Amazon sells it for $9.89, which is still a decent price because this stuff goes far!!

 This was my test:

It went on so smoothly and quickly. It was a pretty powerful smell, so I opened the windows, and boom! In a couple hours, I was done!

Now I know that I probably should have primed the globe and sealed it afterwards, but I didn't, and I still think it looks great. Ok sure, it might not last forever, but that's ok! 

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the axis thingy. Paint it? Leave it? What do you think?

Build-a-Library Baby Shower

Earlier I posted about a blue ombre cake that I was testing out for my friend's baby shower, and now, a couple weeks after the fact, here are the details of the shower! It was so much fun to plan and was a great success!

Her little boy's room is painted aqua with orange accents, so we wanted her shower to match! Since our theme was "Build-a-Library" we tried to match book names with the food we served. 

You might notice an empty bowl in front of the "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" picture... yea we forgot to put the meatballs in before we took the photo. I trust you all have imaginations and can pretend it's there.  :)

Like the chalkboard sign in the background? Here's my tutorial on how to get a professional look by doing it yourself!

My cake didn't turn out too bad either. I found the cute cut out cake toppers from The Pretty Blog. Such a cute addition!

I was in a bit of a rush to decorate the cake, so it's definitely got its flaws. Notice how the top goes in a different direction than the sides? Oops. Oh well. I was still happy with it, and I know it could have looked even better if I would have taken my time with it. 

Wanna know how to decorate a cake using the petal technique? It's super easy, check out Bird on a Cake's tutorial. 

Like my cake stand? I love this one from Amazon and it's only $17.50

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Easy DIY Chalkboard Art

For the past few weeks I have been working on a gift for a friend, that I gave to her this past Saturday at her baby shower. I was quite happy with the finished product, so that I would share it with you all, and give some tips and how to's on the way.

I have recently discovered a super simple technique for creating beautiful chalk art, and after having successfully made a piece for my home, I wanted to give a gift to a friend. I asked her if she had a favourite quote or verse for the baby, and she gave me Psalms 139:13&16, 

"For You created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb, 

you saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. 

Every moment was laid out, before a single day had passed."

Beautiful. 

So I started planning out my design by using photoshop, and tested out a whole swack (that's definitely a word) of fonts that I found on the internet. After finalizing the layout, I went garage sale hunting for a frame that I could paint... that's when I found this gem:

Why someone would give this treasure away is beyond me. It only cost me $2. :) 

Since chalkboard paint on canvas didn't have the desired effect I was looking for, I went to Home Depot and purchased a 2' by 2' piece of hardboard that I had cut down to size. I still had a can of chalkboard paint that I had leftover from the wedding, so I got straight to it, and I didn't prime the board or anything. 

Yes, I did paint indoors, and on top of our beautiful rug. But I was careful... I promise. 

TIP: After you paint with chalkboard paint and it's dry, you need to take a piece of chalk and rub it over the whole thing. You can use a wet rag to wipe it all off after, but you need to do this in case you want to use your chalk sign more than once. If you don't, and then you decide you want to erase your first chalk sign for another, "ghost" marks get left behind and it's not useable. 

Now here's the real trick. To get your desired image on your chalk board, without having to rely on your steady hand and fourth grade knowledge of drawing with chalk, you follow these simple steps: 

#1. Print your template to size. My chalkboard was obviously larger than a letter sized piece of paper, so I "cut" the image in photoshop into small pieces so that I could put them back together, like a puzzle, once they had been printed. Google helped me on this one. Just look up "printing a large image onto multiple pages in photoshop".

#2. Tape or glue all your images together so you have a combined image that is exactly to scale.

#3. Cover the back of the paper with your image in chalk. You can use the side of the chalk to make it go quicker. 

#4. Carefully place your image on your chalkboard, so that the smeared chalk is on the chalkboard, and the image sits where you want your chalk image to be on the board. 

#5. Tape your image onto your board, and then, using a pencil, carefully trace over the letters. Be careful to stay within the lines. The chalk on the back side of your paper will rub off, leaving you with an outline of your image that you can easily go over with a fresh piece of chalk. 

Here's what my image looked like after I had traced over the letters: 

It's not perfect, but it is WAY better than if I did it all by hand. 

Step #6 would be to go over your image again in chalk to brighten it up and fill in any spots that you missed... then...

#7 ---> best tip <--- use a q-tip dipped in water to clean up the smudges. 

Doesn't the finished product look professional? Or close to it? 

I cleaned the image up a bit more before I presented it to her... but I was quite pleased with myself. 

My friend's nursery colours are aqua and orange, so I purchased some aqua spray paint and gave my garage sale frame a make over. 

Once it dried, I put my chalkboard art into it's frame and voila!

Feel free to email me or comment if you have any questions!

Lindsey