Chalk Art With Silhouette Sketch

I have had my Silhouette for almost 3 years and I finally played around with the sketch function! I think it is safe to say I am slightly obsessed! 

Not only was it SOO easy to create some cute artwork but it was so fast and did I say EASY! 

Black paper, white Silhouette pen and a map of the US shape and I had some super fast and super cute artwork for our playroom! And I love how the white pen on black does look like a chalk board! 

Nail State Art

My spin on the pin! I have seen this project on Pinterest several times and really wanted to try it out!

I started by spray painting my board with chalk board paint because I had it out from another project and I am sort of obsessed with chalk boards at th moment!

I cut out the state of Wisconsin using my Silhouette, but you could just print it out and cut it out by hand. I taped the paper image down to my board and started nailing!!!

Nailing the nails was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. In some spots it was just hard to hold the nail because of the angle and some I did not get in tight enough (this is important!! especially on the heart because it holds a lot of string!)

I love how it already looks!!!

I then started wrapping my string over all of the nails. The key here was to go slow and to pull it tight but not too tightly or you might pull the nails out. I did have to go back and nail in a few nails as I did this part. Since I used chalk paint I love that I can write whatever I want on the bottom! I ended up giving this to my sister and her husband for part of their wedding gift. I plan to make myself one sometime soon!

 

Not including painting and drying the background, I completed this project over a 6 hour time span. And I did put my little man to bed, make dinner and a few other things, so it took me less than 6 hours. Which is not too bad, I thought it would take a lot longer! 

Linked up at Dog Days of Winter Link Party

DIY Wedding Chalkboard Place Cards

Welcome to the second day of my Wedding Week! If I didn't make it clear how much I LOVE weddings yesterday..... if I ever got the courage, I would start my own wedding planning business!

For my sister's wedding I created some VERY VERY VERY simple but cute DIY place cards for the rehearsal dinner. This was one of the projects I was told do what ever you want!!! (YEAH!!!)

I spent a while thinking about this and ended up making chalk board coaster place cards!! I bought chipboard coasters from a local craft store (but anywhere has them!!) I then added a few coats of my favorite chalk board spray paint (I am obsessed!!!) I also added a thin layer of cork to the back. After conditioning the coasters....

SUPER easy super cute (and practical and re-useable) chalk board place card coasters!!

I used a liquid chalk pen for these and I wish I would have just used regular chalk. It was REALLY hard to wash the liquid chalk off! BUT they looked great at the rehearsal!

Check out the rest of my wedding week posts!

Kitchen Junk Drawer Organization

My brownie boxes to washi tape inbox mail sorter started with my procrastinating about my wedding duties and the fact that organizing when you have more important things to do is so much fun!

I love my house and I love my kitchen. But the one problem my kitchen has is the lack of drawer storage, so that means no junk drawer! I don't have a picture, but often my counter would be over flowing with junk that had no place to go. I had a small basket on my counter full of junk and the bottom shelf of a cabinet. I did a bit of rearranging and was able to free up another shelf in my cabinet.

I found these great plastic containers from the Target dollar aisle that were black and blue. Once I spray painted them with a nice coat of chalkboard spray paint I had pretty organization.

Six of these little containers fit perfect on my shelf, but I needed to create a second shelf to hold up the top layer. Since they are not that heavy I used a piece of foam board.

I added chalk vinyl to two drawers I also found at Target for more organized storage.

I am so happy with how organized my "junk" space now is! Combine this with my DIY inbox, this upgrade only cost me $26 plus the cost of spray paint which I already had :)

Brownie Box to Washi Tape Mail Sorter

In my procrastination for my wedding duties, I decided I needed to organize my kitchen (there will be more on this later!!!) I decided I needed an inbox for bills and things that needed attention. Yes I could have gone to Target and bought one, BUT this was SUPER easy to make and really took me less than 30 minutes!

I started with 2 brownie boxes and NO plan, just a vision!

I started by cutting the top 1/3 of my box off and then cutting down the front of both sides of the box.

I then drew a diagonal line on the side of the box from the top to the bottom (see the picture on the right) to allow for the angled shape I wanted.

Fold on the line and cut off the extra little flap (Don't cut off the extra from your fold line, this is how you attach the two sides!)

Repeat this for the other side of the box.

Then, repeat the above few steps for the other box! I used the first box as a template for the second (see the image below on the left) Then to assemble, a little hot glue on the flap side, press and hold.

Glue both sides, and assemble the second box. SO easy! Then hot glue the two boxes together.

A finished, yet ugly In Box!

To decorate I used my Target Washi tape. As long as you don't look at the back.... I just applied layers of the tape until I had the design I wanted! (I changed my color from this picture to my final pictures!!) 

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out two fun shapes with Chalkboard vinyl! A couple Command Adhesive strips on the back and I have a new organized in-box!

It feels so much better to be organized!

Childs Chalkboard Frame

Last week I showed the gift I made for my 6 year old niece, this week I am showing the gift I made for her younger sister, our 3 year old niece. I also found this frame at Good Will, and of course I did not take a before picture, but it was in bad shape! I spray painted the frame gray, and used my Rust-o-leum chalk board paint in teal to paint the background board. Since this is for a 3 year old girl, I trimmed the outline of the frame in pink, because what 3 year old does not love pink! I then used my Silhouette to stencil her name on the bottom of the frame!



Used my Martha Stewart stencils to add some blue flowers and one beautiful blue butterfly!




I attached the background to the frame, added felt to the back and was done! I decided not to add any hanging hardware because I am not sure how she will want to use it!

When I was photoing the finished product, my little man decided he needed to write Merry Christmas on the board as well! He was having lots of fun drawing on it, so I hope our niece will like it just as much!

Playroom Chalk Wall

I am finally finished with my chalk wall in my son's playroom!! I painted a house on the playroom wall with Rustoleum chalk board paint in 3 different colors! When we moved in there was a small wooden piece on this wall covering our sewer clean-out valve. So I replaced this with a "door".

I started with the deep blue Restoleum chalk board paint. Here you can see the wooden board covering the sewer clean-out.



After 3 coats, I taped off the roof line, and painted the house green, again with 3 coats.


I had 2 pieces of MDF cut from Home Depot for the back of the door, and a door that opens - since my son LOVES to open and close things! I painted both pieces of MDF with Rustoleum Moonstruck.


I then taped off the roof line and chimney and painted it with Rustoleum Moonstruck chalk board paint. I spent a significant time measuring our the roof lines and the chimney and used a level to make sure everything was straight!

Done with the chalk paint!

Painting my outside door, I decided to add trim to the door, which I found at the Home Depot. I could not decide what color to paint the door. At first I was going to make it a chalk board again, but I could not decide on the color. So it has a few coats of paint on it!


I was very excited when I found the new Martha Stewart crafts at Michael's and the magnetic paint!! I was a bit skeptical about it at first. I liked that it was water based and did not smell! Compared to other magnetic paint I have seen! I used a plastic knife to stir it, since its really thick!


I ended up giving the board 3 coats of the magnetic paint.


My first coat I put on way too thick! As I said I was skeptical about it, so I thought a thicker coat would be better! But nope, the thick coat cracked. So highly recommend thin coats!!!

I also did not wait long enough for my thick layer to dry, so it smudged a bit. After my first bad coat, I waited much longer to put on my 2nd and 3rd coats.



After 24 hours I then applied a Martha Stewart paint in Habenero, after testing the paint out to see if it really worked. And to my surprise it works!!!

Do my finished chalk board wall, with a magnetic door!

I am so excited that the magnetic paint worked! I loved that it was easy to work with, and did not smell bad!

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Toy Storage with DIY Chalkboard Tags

In order to try and keep my son's playroom as organized as possible, I bought several canvas totes from Target that were pretty boring. So I decided to make little chalkboard (my latest obsession!!!!) labels for them. Super easy and now we have an organized (for now) toy room!


At Micheal's I bought little wooden boards meant for flags for 29 cents a piece!



I gave them 2 coats of Rustoleam Moonstruck Chalkboard paint!


Ready to attach my chalkboard tags to the canvas. My first time using Liquid Nails!!


A nice drizzle of Liquid Nails.


Just placed them on and let them dry!


The finished product.

So organized! All of my canvas totes in our IKEA LACK shelf.