DIY Schoolhouse Chalkboard

I'm so excited to present you my School House Chalkboard!
I made it myself! And I'm going to show you how.

I'm having so much fun finding new phrases, verses and sayings and testing out new techniques!

My inspiration and idea came from one of my favorite blogs by Susie Harris. 

She blogged about how she made herself a School House Chalkboard (you can find her's here), 

and she got her idea from someone else. Don't you just love this blogging community? So fun!

I bought the following materials at Lowe's and had the pieces cut to my specifications:

1/8" Hardboard for the chalkboard face and the backing. Hardboard is sold in huge pieces, so you will have to have it cut down in order for it to even fit in your car!

(1) 24 x 34 

(1) 27 x 39

Beginning from Top to Bottom I had the following pieces cut:

(2) 27" 1 x 2 (the two pieces surrounding the flat middle piece)

(1) 27" Pine Project Board 1/2 x 6 (the large flat piece in the top middle)

(2) 36" 1 x 2 (the side pieces)

(1) 22" 1 x 2 (the bottom Piece)

The picture above shows all my pieces laid out before painting, gluing and nailing it all together.

 I lightly sanded all the edges of everything that was to be painted white 

and then found some high gloss white paint and went to work.

 Next I laid out my my hardboards (after painting on the chalk board paint on the smaller piece).

 I used regular old wood glue to adhere the two pieces together.

 I went to town with the glue!

 I think I let it dry overnight just to ensure it wouldn't shift when I add the top, sides and bottom.

 After gluing the top together I glued on the bottom and the sides. 

I love using heavy cans as a weight to keep everything in place!

 Attaching the sides...

 I had my husband take these pictures. 

He went a little happy with the camera that day!
I had to delete many many pictures of close-ups on the glue, the cans...

 After the glue dried I added a couple small finishing nails on the back side.

 And on the bottom. 

I forgot to take a picture of the next step, but I used caulk at all the seams for a nice smooth finish.

 Now for the fun stuff! With the side of the chalk I seasoned up the board.

 It's important to use a cloth (and not a paper towel) when removing the chalk. 

The paper towel leaves leftovers behind. 

I keep a damp cloth on hand when I'm working on my lettering.

 I drew some lines on my board to use as a guide 

and then searched Pinterest to find great chalkboard art. This is by far by favorite!

 I free-handed all the lettering 

(although there are some "tricks" for transferring phrases to your chalkboard)

 Check out Dear Lille who is amazingly talented and created this chalkboard art! She offered downloadable versions of this, for those of you who like to admire but don't want to create. 

Here is a list of all she has to offer.

 I had so much fun even before Easter was even over
I erased the whole board and created something new!

 And again! Gotta love the lettering on the words "Firm & Secure!" I wish I was that good! 

Next week I'll show you how to transfer lettering onto your chalkboard. And some of my techniques.

Here's what's hanging in my kitchen now! 

I love the different styles of lettering and the use of colored chalk!
Don't forget to come back next week for Chalkboard lettering and the DIY!

Duct Tape Purse

Don't you just love all the fun patterns and colorful colors of Duct Tape you can get these days? 

My youngest has been crazy about creating with Duct Tape. 

So we thought it was very fitting to make Duct Tape purses at her birthday party.

I made this sample purse for Katelyn's birthday party and I'll show you how I did it!

I'd been stocking up on fun and colorful Duct tape... 

So I grabbed a couple that I thought coordinated well together.

And a piece of fabric cut that I cut 13 x 8. 

You can choose to cut your fabric any size depending 

on how large or small you want your final product to be.

Flip the fabric over so the wrong side is up and starting lining strips of Duct tape from top to bottom onto the fabric, alternating in different patterned tape (or 3 or 4 patterns).
This will become the outside of your purse.

Fold your fabric/duct tape piece in half and attach a strip of tape on both sides.

Use the picture above as your guide. You will need to trim a little of the tape off on the top and bottom.

Here's another look of the side of the purse with the tape attached and trimmed.

The next part may sound a little tricky, but it's not. 

Hang with me here... 

Take your bottom corner and tuck it in gently so 

it's on the inside of the purse and helps to create a base.

This picture may be a little hard to see... 

but way down at the bottom you can see that the corner of the purse has come through.

You'll want to add a strip of tape along the inside seams. Adhering it to the fabric.

I cut a strip of tape in half, but you could use a whole piece.

Next I added a piece of tape all along the top edge of the purse, all the way around. 

It's starting to come together!

For the strap I took a super long piece of Duct tape and folded it in thirds. 

I measured this based on how low I wanted the purse to hang down. 

Be patient and remember this tape is very sticky!

I adhered the strap on the inside of the purse with another small piece of the Duct tape.

I made the strap long enough so the purse could be hung across your chest.

There you have it! 

An adorable hand made Duct tape purse!

It would be very easy to add a pocket to the inside as well. 

Here are some more examples of the girls came up with at the Katelyn's Birthday party.

I'd love to see your Duct tape creations!

Mustache Birthday Party

Katelyn has fallen in love with the latest Mustache Craze. 

So we decided to have her 9th birthday party around that theme.

I sewed this little mustache onto a t-shirt from Old Navy. 

I made myself a t-shirt too! Using the freezer paper technique. Check out the DIY here. 

Here's a little taste of the party, my Instagram collage. 

I found these adorable tin buckets at Target way back in the fall. 

The pink fuzzy mustaches were with the Valentine's party favors.

We made chocolate mustache suckers and tied them up with ribbon from Hobby Lobby. 

We filled the tin buckets with the chocolate suckers, hand sanitizer, tiny mustache earrings 

(found on Amazon for $1.30!) and a couple a mustache stickers.

I cut out black card stock mustaches with my Silhouette and then punched a hole in the middle and stuck the straw through. For the DIY on the bottle, check out my post here.

I had fun collecting black, white and pink accessories from around the house to decorate the mantle. 

The Subway Art is by Eighteen25, you can find it here (free printable!)

 I had so much fun making this banner with scrapbook paper, 

my silhouette and black & white bakers twine.

The possibilities for a banner like this are just endless!

Our craft was to create purses out of Duct Tape (another new favorite of Katelyn's!) 

It was nice to have my almost-13-year-old and her friend helping with the litte-r girls.

Here is one of the completed Duct Tape purses. 

I'll post the DIY next week (so you have to come back!)

And the Birthday girl and her new purse (and finger Mustache!)

This cake was so fun and so easy! Here's what I did:

1) Bake one cake in a round pan 

(one box actually made two round cakes, so I had two mustache cakes!)

2) Cut the cake like the above picture (I kept thinking about a ying and yang symbol)

3) Frost! And you don't want it to be smooth... I've never seen a smooth mustache.

I have a little trick I use when frosting. 

First I put a little frosting on the plate so the cake doesn't want to slide around. 

I also keep a glass of hot water for dipping my knife into.

Happy 9th Birthday to my Sweet Katelyn!

We all got in on the Mustache action. Ben cracks me up!