The Making of a Chalkboard: Part 2

Check out the post from yesterday for Part 1.

To continue on with the making of a chalkboard (and all the hard parts are done now) we will prep the trim and chalkboard itself.  I spray painted the front of the trim, while that dried I "seasoned" the chalkboard. In order to "season" a chalkboard, take the side of a piece of chalk and rub it all over the chalkboard (after it has dried for at least 24 hours).

Make sure the chalk you are using is made up of calcium sulfate and not clay.  Clay chalk can easily scratch the surface.  Once you "season" the chalkboard, take a felt eraser and erase the chalk and it is ready to be used.

I still need to attach the chalkboard to the trim.  In order to do that, I pulled out my brad nailer again.  I laid the trim down first, then the chalkboard on top of it.  (Both right sides facing down)  I then used alternating angles and shot the brads into the back of the chalkboard to attach it to the trim.

I had already sprayed the front of my trim, so now I take some primer and touched up the edges of the hardboard and trim.  Once that dried, I spray painted the edges.

Of course, by now the kids were onto what I was doing.  So since everything had dried, I drew a picture for them.

They loved what mommy had to draw so much, they erased it and tried to draw something themselves.

All I had left to do now was figure out how to hang it up.  I had the perfect spot picked out in the house for it.  It would be on the half wall that is on the back side of my kitchen cabinets (the half wall is in the living room).

I picked up some brass hangers.  I decided a pack of 4 should suffice and marked the back of the chalkboard and predrilled my holes, then attached the hangers.

I held this up with my trusty level and marked out on the wall where it was going to hang.

I drilled my holes and put in drywall anchors.  I don't want the chalkboard going anywhere, especially when it's my little monsters that are going to be playing with it.

Once the drywall anchors were in place, I screwed the screws (seriously cannot think of a better way to say that) and hung up the chalkboard.

The chalkboard is complete...almost.  That was until I realized how crooked it looked.  I used the level and check it again, on all 4 sides.  Yup, it's level, but looks off.  I check the counter.

Awesome...counter, NOT LEVEL!  At least this hangs low enough that no one else is going to realize it looks a little off kilter.

Now, it's time for it to be fully tested.  I let Maben at it!

It takes the chalk well.  How about how it does with another kid added.  Come on over Colton.

Both boys are happy with it.  It has received quite a bit of use so far and even Colton's little fingers have no problem getting at the chalk.

This project is a COMPLETE SUCCESS!!!

Sharing this project over at:

The Making of a Chalkboard: Part 1

My kids LOVE sidewalk chalk, they love to draw, my youngest loves to eat crayons, but not chalk.  With all this in mind, I decided to make them a chalkboard for inside, from scratch.  I was also needing something to do with my laptop being out of commission for a few days.

I am going to walk you through how I did it.  It was actually quite easy, much easier than I thought.

I started with a piece of hardboard.  This is a thin piece of (fairly smooth) MDF.

Wipe it down, because you want your surface clean before you spray on the chalkboard paint.

Don't worry, not blood, just paint on my thumb.

You are going to need to apply several thin layers of the chalkboard paint.

I used a can gun...which makes using spray paint SO much easier, especially when you are doing a lot of spray painting.

With each application, spray in a different direction.  Rotate through horizontal, vertical and diagonal until covered with a nice even coat.

Let the paint dry for a full 24 hours before you do anything else with it.

The next step for me was to work on the trim.  We had some left in the garage from the previous owner.

I measured out my hardboard, 24x49 inches.  I needed to cut my trim to this size.  I got to bust out my new Bosch miter saw to cut my trim.

The new miter saw made this so easy to do with a long piece of trim.  It comes with an adjustable hold down.  Nice huh?

I then took the trim piece that was going to be on the bottom of my chalkboard and routed out a groove.  I wanted this so the chalk had a place to sit.  So I took my router loaded in the bit I wanted to use.

The routed edge came out PERFECT!  (I did use the scrap trim to get it right first)

After all my pieces were cut, I pulled out my corner clamps.  A MUST HAVE in any shop.  These make sure you have those perfect corners.

I did a dry set up of all my pieces first.  This way, I knew if I needed to do any sanding/cutting to get those corners to line up the way I wanted to.

I then glued up the corners with wood glue.

Tighten up the clamps.

Before I let the glue sit for the night, I took out my brad nailer and nailed the corners for reinforcement.

I placed nails in the edges at the target locations shown in the photo below.  Be sure to place them in the center or you can risk splitting the wood.

Click here for part II.

Happy Dance!

Oh I am so incredibly happy right now.  I have my laptop up and running.  I feel like such a geeky goddess reformatting a computer.  Oh yes, the virus knocked out all of my antivirus software and disabled my system restore.  Awesome!  So, while it is up and running, I am still pulling photos, downloading software, bookmarking all my favorite sites, etc.  This I am sure will take a while.

I am also happy that  April is over.  That month really kicked my behind up one side and down the other.  Here's to hoping that May brings calmer waters for not only myself, but my family.

I am going to leave you with a taste of what I have been up to lately and this is also what you can look forward to seeing soon.

Logan Mat Cutter

Bosch Miter Saw

Triton Router

Porter Cable Brad Nailer

Are you curious?  Stay tuned to see how/what I used all these items to create.

The Woodworking Show

This weekend hubby and I hit up The Woodworking Show here in Katy, TX.  It was overall a lot of fun and we had a good time.  There were some highs and lows in my experience for the show. 

Total high, hubby watched the kiddos while I talked up my blog to a bunch of sales reps.  I love you hunny!  To all you sales people, I hope you enjoy my blog and thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Maben playing under a table.

Total low, the typical thing happened, I am a woman in a man's world.  There were several sales reps that refused to talk to me so long as there was a man within earshot whose attention they could grab.  SHAME ON YOU! 

I expected it.  It's why locally I choose to shop at Woodcraft over other woodworking stores.  The guys that work at Woodcraft have been nothing but super nice to me.  Some other stores have not been as nice.  I think those other places are seriously missing out on an awesome demographic, WOMEN!  There are more and more women DIYers and woodworkers popping up everywhere and so few of us are getting representation, recognized or even any respect in what has typically been and still is a male dominated field.  I am amazed at all the room makeovers I am seeing by all my fellow tool wielding women.  You gals all rock!  I am so happy to be a part of a community where so many women aren't afraid to try new things.  The community of women bloggers who are building and crafting is amazing!

Anyways, I wanted to give an giant shout out to the companies that were super friendly to me.  Mr. Juneau from Bosch tools, Circle Saw, Everyone from Woodline USA, Craft Supplies USA and Sommerfeld's.  You all made me feel like I belonged.  I am a fan of your products and was super happy to be able to purchase from most of you.

Me standing next to my favorite purchase from the show.  I can't wait to find any reason to use it!

12" Dual-Bevel Glide Miter Saw

The new miter saw puts our old miter saw to shame.  I will have to dedicate an entire post later on to all that this bad boy can do. 

Fence Picket Flag

As you have seen recently, we redid our fence.  We had to take down what was left of our old fence and when doing so, I got an awesome idea!  I wanted to make a flag out of some of the old pickets.  I have seen the Texas flag done in old reclaimed lumber, but never the American flag.  Even though I live in Texas and love it here, I don't have the need to plaster the Texas flag all over everything.  I mean no disrespect to all the native Texans out there, I birthed two.

To me, the American flag holds much more meaning in my heart than any state flag does.  My husband is former military, we married right outside of Fort Hood, TX.  My family has road tripped across this great country more times than I can count and I love it.  I love that I can say I have seen the World's Largest Ball of Twine.  I have stood on a corner in Winslow, AZ.  I have seen the sunflowers in bloom in Kansas fields.  It's this love that has made the top of my bucket list to visit all 50 states.  34 down, 16 to go!  It is also this love for my country that I rose to the challenge of doing the American flag in reclaimed fence pickets. 

Didn't it turn out amazing?  I LOVE IT!  My hubby loves it too!  It makes a very nice addition to our backyard.  Now I just need to landscape...a lot!

Items needed:

6 old fence pickets

old 2x4

5 cans of spray paint (2 white, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 clear coat)

hammer and nails (or in my case, our new framing nailer)

tape

sandpaper or sander

drill and bits

eye bolts

wire

hook

paper

dimensions for the American flag

Calculator and tape measure

The very first thing I did was head to this website to find out the dimensions of a standard American flag.  I then had to calculate the height and width.  That is how I settled on my approximate 3 feet by 6 feet.

I started off with cutting my 2x4 down to size.  I knew the height of my flag was going to be 36 inches.  So I cut two at that length.  I laid out  my pickets, then nailed them onto the 2x4.

back

front

I sprayed my front with a layer of white spray paint.  I am so HAPPY that I did that.  I didn't think about just how dry this wood was and how much paint it was going to soak up.  I ended up using an entire can of spray paint on just laying down a primer coat, or 3!  I then took my dimensions, tape and tape measure and blocked off my field of blue and spray painted that.

One coat of blue, I ended up doing 3 coats.

I while waiting for my many coats to dry, I made up my template for the stars.  I printed it out on photo paper and glued it to a piece of cardstock.  I then cut out my stars.  The side facing up is the card stock, I don't know why I didn't take a photo of the other side, which is the side I had up while spraying.

The reason for using the photo paper, I knew that it would need to take a healthy dose of paint on top of it and I didn't want it to fall apart or curl.  Photo paper is meant to take some wetness, but to ensure that it wouldn't curl I glued the cardstock to the back.  It worked like a dream!

All 50 stars in their stunning glory.

The stars only needed one coat of paint...THANKFULLY!  I then taped off my stripes and painted those.

This was my stopping point for the night and I managed to finish up everything the next day while kids were sleeping.

The next step was to distress my flag.  I didn't want it too look brand spanking new and freshly painted.  I like the aged look, like something has a story to tell.  I grabbed my random orbital sander and went to town.

I think the distressing went well and with the sander, it made very short work of what could have been a long job if I had done it by hand.  This also helped rid the issue of any spray over or drips.

I sprayed down the front of my flag with a clear coat, to help keep it from weathering too quickly.  

Once that was dry, I flipped it over and attached my eye bolts and my hanging wire.

I made sure that I got a strong enough wire for the job.  Also, the eye bolts go all the way through the 2x4 and are secured with a nut so they can't get pulled out if a wind storm puts any stress on them.  

All I have left now is to hang this bad boy on my fence with a hook.  I plan on sinking the hook into one of the 4x4 fence posts that has been sunk in concrete, to make sure there is enough support to hold the flag.  It weighs about 30 lbs.  

Showing off my hard work!

2 days of work and I have this awesome new American flag to show for it.  This came out exactly how I envisioned it.  Just perfect!  

Showing my awesome project off at a few parties!  

So You Think You're Crafty