Showing posts with label chalk board paint. Show all posts

Chalk Board Art Goodness

Thursday, November 8, 2012

I've been wanting to write a quote on my chalkboard door, something better than dinner menus, for awhile.

When I heard President Uchtdorf's talk from the LDS General Conference he said something that really grooved with me and I knew it was going up on the chalkboard. Here is the link if you'd like to read the whole talk.

But first, I had to figure out how I was going to write it so that it looked like something akin to chalk art and not my usual I'm-a-lefty-chicken-scratch. I started thinking about the scrapbooks I used to make back in the day; I was serious about my graphic lettering back then!

So I got them out to review and took some photos so you could see just HOW serious:




I know! How did I have time for that kind of family recording? Poor Ellie, she has no scrapbook goodness, all her photo memories are digital. Let's stick in a picture of her to make up for it.

Poor, cute, underrepresented fourth child.

Where was I? Oh yah, cool lettering. So I decided to put my old scrapping skills to work and here is what I came up with.
It says, "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." Here is a close up.
Even after a bunch of erasing I'm still not entirely happy with the way this turned out, but it still makes me smile every time I walk by.

A few tips from my experience? Sure. First, draw a border; it frames things nicely. Second, dip your chalk in water as you're working, it dries a brighter white than if you didn't. And third, you can center each line by counting how many letters and spaces there are in the line and then dividing by two and putting the letter in the middle, well, in the middle.

For example, the line "is invisible to" has 13 letters and 2 spaces for a total of 15. So the 7th or 8th letter will be roughly the center of the line. Begin by writing the "s" in the middle of your line, and then work out from both side. Did that make sense? I'm not sure I'm explaining clearly but I'm going to assume you are a smart person who is good at understanding.

And I know you are :0) 

Chalkboard Paint Project

Tuesday, April 13, 2010


Definitely I should be doing something besides blogging. I could set up quicken, fold the baskets of laundry in my room, or mop (I REALLY ought to mop). I could wash the dog or clean up the breakfast room. My room needs to be dusted too. Probably you have stuff to do besides read blogs, so I guess that makes us even. I suggest we both concentrate on ignoring unpleasant tasks and enjoy our computer time!


Anyway, a few weeks ago I painted the door to my kitchen with chalkboard paint. Lots of people in blogland have been using chalkboard paint in their homes, but I think they all did it like a year ago. Not only am I a copy cat, I'm a slow copy cat. Oh well, I like it a lot. The benefit of being slow is that I could ignore all of the recipes for homemade chalk paint and go strait to buying it at ACE, where they are also about a year behind everyone in blogland.

I used to write reminders to myself on my hand; it worked well for me because I am infinitely good at losing little bits of paper and forgetting to look at my calendar. Then I got to an age where it feels embarrassing to have things scribbled on my hand, a lovely French manicure would be so much more appropriate. But the kitchen door/chalk board works a lot like writing on my hand. I see the same important message several times a day, and it stays there until I wash it off.

Since I painted both sides I have room to put the week's menu and the small's chore charts on it too. Jonathan really likes seeing what I plan (I use the term loosely) to make for dinner during the week. He was inspired to hug the door when he saw "flank steak" up there.

 

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