DIY Upcycle A Large Chalkboard Sign for Under $10!

My spell checker doesn't like the word upcycle, but it's one of my favorite words in all of my vocabulary. I had to look up the definition of upcycle because I wanted to make sure it wasn't just a word I made up and was hoping it would catch on. It's not. Upcycle: also known as creative reuse {side note, love that!}, is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality {yep and yep} or for better environmental value. 

To be totally honest, the reason I upcycle is because I'm cheap. The environmental benefit {less waste in the landfill yadda yada} is just a good side effect of my cheapness. It's why I cloth diapered my kiddos. But I digress... This DIY upcycled chalkboard sign. It's huge. Like really big and I made it for under $10. If you want the real total it was really only $2, but I'm thinking if you want to make something similar, I would venture to guess that I could steer you in the right direction and you could DIY a large {and I'm telling you this is like 8-year-old child sized} chalkboard for under $10. Want to know how? Keep reading!

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Easy chalkboard typography art tutorial

Easy chalkboard typography art tutorial

Remember this summer when I told you about how I met a new friend in the construction business?

Jose was gutting a house a few doors down and had piles of vintage windows in the trash pile.

I salvaged them and made some into chalkboards to sell at a local craft bazaar.

I didn't want to just sell the window plain, so I jumped on the chalkboard typography bandwagon and spruced them up a bit before I listed them for sale.

I had been thinking of borrowing a friends overhead transparency projector but didn't get around to asking her in time, so I went with plan B.  Which was much easier than I expected.

Here's the tutorial for you because I hate to keep a good thing to myself.

First, find an image that you want to use.

I googled images and found a few that I liked then cut and pasted them in word.

I enlarged this one and printed it off.

This one was larger than the others and needed to be taped together.

 Next, chalk the heck out of the back of the page.

Rub the whole thing down doing your best to not miss any spots.

Also be aware of where your hand is when you rub the chalk down. 

You don't want your hand to take away chalk that you rubbed on.

Turn your image over and place it where you want it on your chalkboard.

Use a sharp pencil and trace over your image.

When you have traced the entire image, remove the paper.

This is what it will look like.

Now use your chalk and fill in the image.

Blow off the extra chalk dust and wipe around the image to remove as much of the extra chalk as you can.

I sprayed my chalk art with hairspray to help it stay in place.

Then I printed off even more images and used this technique on every chalked surface I could find!

It was that easy!

At the craft bazaar it was something that would draw people in to look in my booth. It was so much easier than I thought it would be and made such a big impact. Think you will try it?

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Lazy Cleaning Tricks for a Spotless Home

I like a clean home. I feel overwhelmed with clutter and messes. I just don't love to clean my house. I know there are people out there who love to scrub every surface, to spend their free time sorting and organizing every closet and cabinet. I'm just not one of them. 

I was hoping that as my kids got older that maybe I could put them to work doing the stuff I don't like to do, but to be honest, they really aren't that great at cleaning either. Don't get me wrong, they are super great at making messes, but the cleaning up part is their downfall. 

After nearly 20 years of having a home of my own to clean, I've got some lazy cleaning tricks up my sleeve and I'm spilling the secrets today on how you can have a spotless home the lazy way.

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Easy chalkboard art tutorial

Several years ago I posted a tutorial for easy to make chalkboard art. It was my first ever {and only!} time I have been slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit.  Thankfully, we were able to work things out, but that meant that I had to take my tutorial down.  I have been meaning to re do the tutorial and post it again, because it's a technique that I use often, but the days turned to weeks and those weeks turned to years, but holla!  I'm finally getting around to getting a new improved tutorial up for you!

And I'm using images that you can find as free printables on-line so there is no copyright issue we should run into!

If you scratch your head and wonder how people make such awesome chalkboard art, this is how non artists do it!  And you can do it too!

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