I love making things and using my hands to be artistic! Growing up, my mother use to make signs out of old paneling and she would make scarecrows for the fall and different crafts with roosters and chickens! She would set up a booth during First Monday (a big flea market once a month where I’m from) and she would sell her crafts! We had fun helping her out (and getting to play with the goats and new puppies at for sale!) I never really felt I gained the artistic gene though. My younger sister Maegan, takes being artsy to a totally different level! She is a hair dresser and she just envisions something and goes to town! And when you leave her chair, you are feeling fun and sexy and a little edgy because she just knows how to make someone feel their best! She also does make up for weddings and special occasions and she can show me the craziest colors for eye makeup and I think she is nuts! But then I see the final product and I wonder how I didn’t see what she saw to begin with; it always looks fabulous! Even when it comes to clothing I am pretty plain and simple. I love designer pieces and choose to spend more money on a piece that I can wear with multiple things! Whereas, Maegan shops wherever, Charlotte Russe, Forever 21, etc. and finds such cute clothes (that until I see on her, I would have laughed at on the hanger!) So as you can see, I’m not artistic by any means. I am the Type A personality who’s organized and likes clean, straight lines. BUT I really enjoy redoing old pieces of furniture and modge podging things to death! Usually if I have a glass of wine, or four, my crafts come out so much better! I’m guessing it’s because I’m not so uptight about having everything perfect.
So this weekend I went to town on several pieces! We are in the process of putting our house on the market, and I decided that I need to finish my unfinished projects so I can either sell them or make my house look more appealing with them! Here is the first I worked on!
Mother’s Day was Sunday and I really needed to get this done for my mom. I made a Chalkboard for her since she is always borrowing mine!  She throws lots of showers and celebrations and chalkboards add that little extra pizzazz with chalkboard art!  The first thing I did was get an old picture frame…garage sales are the best place to find these!

Then I went to town and painted the frame with chalk paint!  I liked it ok…I will talk about how I feel about chalk paint in another post!  Spray paint works just as well (better in my opinion!)  And I put a clear wax over the chalk paint (which to be honest polyurethane in satin works great too!)

 

Next I cut my hard board (Masonite) to the size I needed to fit the frame.

Then I primed the board, making sure my primer was even, I gave it two coats.

Then I got out my  chalk board paint….now, I am picky about my chalk board paint and Rust-oleum is the only one I like.  I have tried the chalk board paint in a can and OMG it does not work near as well as the spray paint.

 

It looks like this the first coat.  I also spray the opposite way (top to bottom after doing side to side) to cover for the first coat.  Let it dry for about 10 min and spray another coat.  Do that for a total of 3-4 coats or until it looks smooth like you want.  Then you’ll let it dry a full 24 hours!

Once it has dried completely, you’ll put it in the frame.  I fastened mine with either a staple sideways, or little nails at an angle.

Before you use it, go over the entire board with a piece of chalk on its side and then erase! Ta-Da!

Any questions, just post below:)