Love at Home Chalkboard

I made this for part of a wedding present. I repurposed a bulletin board that I bought at a thrift store for $1 - into a cute little chalkboard. Here is what I did....

1. I sanded all the wood including bulletin board wood. I painted the frame with four coats of white acrylic paint - sanding lightly between coats. I painted half the board white - and the other half with chalkboard spray paint. This was the first time I used chalkboard paint. The directions said to apply at least two coats, I applied six - sanding lightly between coats. I wasn't expecting to do that many coats but  it didn't look like a chalkboard until the sixth coat. Maybe my coats were too light?? Oh well, live and learn.

2. My original idea for the letters was to buy wood letters and paint them white. I could not find wood letters that fit and that had all the letters - so plan B - I decided to make chipboard letters. I printed out 4 pieces of each word/letter/symbol on card stock, and mod podged them together. I printed these words out from my Cricut using three different cartridges. "Love" -  Home Decor cartridge (size 3 1/2); "Home"  - Home Accents cartridge (size 3 1/2); "@" Graphically Speaking (size 2). The number "2" picture looks wonky - but it is showing what I cut out before I them together.

3. After the letters dried - the next step was to glue them on to the board.

4. I was in a bit of a hurry to finish this project and hot glued the letters to the board - however I suggest giving yourself plenty of time and sticking the words on with tacky glue. Some of the hot glue on mine oozed out and was visible.

5. I made a chalkboard brush using a 1x4 scrap, that I painted, stamped a scroll on top, and glued felt to the bottom.

I think it turned out pretty nice, and that chalkboard brush just made me giddy - it was so cute. I am on the hunt for another bulletin board to make one for myself now. 

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