Back to the chalkboard

Back to the drawing, er, chalkboard!

Not only am I obsessed with Gallery Walls...I'm also obsessed with chalkboards!


It all started a long time ago, when I first saw Miss Mustard Seeds huge chalkboard.

I love her style....I mean who doesn't!


Then I made a few chalkboards for my booth over the last few months, like these...

But want I really wanted a HUGE chalkboard just for ME! 

And when I saw this huge, ugly picture at Goodwill one day for half price, just $7, I knew I had found my chalkboard. (Excuse the awful glare, this is the only before photo I could find.)

A couple coats of Salem Red Milk Paint, some distressing, and about 5 coats of chalkboard paint (painted directly onto the heavy cardboard type print) and wallah....an AWESOME large chalkboard for my kitchen!

And what about that menu??  My kind of meal. LOL

So, what do you think?  Are you loving chalkboards as much as I am these days?

Chalkboard Love

I have been slightly obsessed with chalkboards lately.  

I've sold several chalkboards in my booth lately.  This is the most recent taken to the booth for sale.

It didn't always look like this though.  I rescued it from Goodwill on one of our half priced Saturday's.  It was U.G.L.Y.

I painted and distressed the frame.  And then I used chalkboard paint over the glass.  

I bought this container of FolkArt Chalkboard Paint forever ago with a coupon.  So, I paid approximately $5.  It takes quite a few coats, usually at least 4 coats, to cover nicely.  But I still have well over half of the bottle, many projects later.

I 

So, here is the finished project once again.  

And with that, this will be my final post until after new year.

I hope you each take time away from the computer to enjoy time with your family and friends this holiday season!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

This project was featured here at Craftionary.

Meeting a Bloggety Friend!!

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting my long time blogging friend, Tammy, from Not Just Paper and Glue.

She lives outside Dallas where I am visiting my family.  So, we made arrangements to meet at The Little Blue House in Keller, Texas.

The Little Blue House was amazing!  I chose to do these Ho Ho Ho Tags.

These are not mine...mine are still drying because I used WAY to much of the glossy stuff over my letters....but on the bright side....they are looking really good (if they ever dry). ;)

Anywho....I enjoyed finally meeting in Tammy in person.  She is just as sweet as I imagined she would be.   

She made this gorgeous flower ball ornament for me!! 

Tammy is a PK Glitz representative.  She let me try out all her goodies!  

Can I just say.....I AM IN LOVE WITH GLITTER!!!  It was so much fun! The glitter is so fine (not that I can really say I know much about glitter).  But here is what I made.

  

I cannot tell you how happy I am I got to meet Tammy.  If you have time, stop by her blog and check her out. :)

Beautiful Junk

I was motivated to get a blog post up this weekend because my awesome bloggety-friend, Mel, from Junkin' Junky is hosting her first link party called "Beautiful Junk Saturday"!!

I just had to be a part of it. :)

And since I haven't been posting much lately because of school, I figured I'd show several projects I've done recently for my boutique wall at The Emporium in Greenwood, IN.

Let's see....first up is the, um, lovely apple recipe holder I picked up at Goodwill.

After lots of sanding, some black spray paint and some awesome scrapbook papers, I had this.

It went straight to the booth, but I will be honest, I will not be heartbroken if it doesn't sell because I am completely in love with it! :)

Second is the little plate I also found at Goodwill.  I loved the shape.

I decided it would make a really cute chalkboard for the kitchen.

It was the first time I worked with chalkboard paint.  It took at least 4 coats, maybe more, but I was impressed with how well it worked when done.  

Shhhh, don't tell anyone but I have another plate so I can make one for myself. too. ;)

I only make things for the booth that I would love to have myself....which makes selling my own handmade creation super tough!  I want to keep everything I sell! LOL

So, that brings to my third Goodwill upcycle.  An old wood taper candle holder.  

I'm not a fan of tapered candles, they just drip all over the place for me and it bugs me.  So, I took this candle holder and added a finial I purchased at Lowe's.

I used black spray paint over the whole thing to make it one large decorative finial piece.  I also distressed it slightly with a gold Rub n Buff.  

Another creation I had a REALLY hard time getting rid of.

And lastly, I don't have before shots, but basically I used a plain glass candle holder, hot glued burlap, some twine and an vintage jewelry piece for a, now, fancy candle holder.

Whew!!  So, there you have a handful of what I've been working around here.

Some of these items have already sold at the booth and others were still there yesterday when I was there.

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As an update, the booth is actually doing really well.  I just wish I had more time to work on stuff for it.  School has me CRAZY busy.  Seriously, I do homework all. the. time!  But can you believe I'm already halfway through the first semester!  

Surprisingly, Algebra (remember how worried I was?) has come VERY easy to me.  It's actually my easiest class!  Can you believe that?  LOL  

Drawing is extremely hard for me, but I LOVE it!  Go figure.  I'm actually going to take another drawing class next semester even though it won't count toward my Interior Design degree.  

And the hardest class, without a doubt, is Intro to Interior Design!  There is SO much work in that class!!  Architectural hand lettering...impossible!  The tests and quizzes....ridiculously hard!  Floor plans and elevations TO SCALE....takes forever.  I have serious concerns about my end grade in that class....can you believe that?!?!  It's quite shocking to me.  Who would have dreamed THAT would be the class to give me heartburn. 

Don't get me wrong...I enjoy every single bit of what we are learning.  It's just an overwhelming amount of work.  My ever so slight perfectionism might, just maybe, be a part of that....but....nah....that can't be it. ;)

Recycled Yard Art

The first Saturday of every month, our Goodwill has everything for half off.

Since I couldn't find any yard sales this weekend, I popped over for the big sale and picked up a bunch of random glass pieces.

Let's take a step back...there is a booth at The Emporium, where my booth is, that has a few if these really awesome yard art sculptures made from recycled glass pieces.

I always stop by and stare at them! They charge $15 each, which I think is completely reasonable...I just haven't been able to afford that right now.

So.....when I was at the Goodwill it occurred to me that I could make one or two myself and save some money.  I already had the glass glue on hand.

The best part of all this, Doodle actually was excited to help!!!!!  As any tween girl's mom knows....this is a HUGE deal! ;)

So, we grabbed pieces like this old light shade....

and little juice glasses....

And some colored glass, that ironically was a bonus!  I was just buying the container...had no idea we'd end up using the beads inside! :)

And this is what we ended up with!  This one is mine....

And here is the Doodle's....

How stinkin' cute are these?!?  We are both pretty proud of how these turned out.

They sparkle so pretty in the garden!

You can insert a wooden dowel into the ground and into the vase portion for stability if you need to.

I'm not actually displaying them together like this, I plan to spread them out...but I wanted to get a shot of them outside to show them side by side.

Of course, the price is dependent on your glassware choices. These came in at around $3 each.  Not bad, huh?


I'll be posting this project at these linky parties! :)