Fun with Paint - Chalkboard Style

I will be entering this post in a Linky Party!!   Or two!   Check here for tons of Make Your Monday projects brought to you by Twice Remembered.

Also I am again *repurposing* to participate in a KNOCK OFF KNOCK OUT Party hosted by It's So Very Cheri.

This will also be included in Show and Tell Friday over at My Romantic Home.    Get yer butt here for a visit!

So if you are an avid blog follower, you might have seen the following trick repeated many, many, many times over the last few weeks.   I hope you don't mind one more! 

If you have never heard of chalkboard paint, it is like the coolest stuff ever created!   Take a look at the following "redo" and you'll be looking around your home for stuff to "chalkify" too!!

I started with a picture of a giraffe and it's baby that for some reason I have lying around.  I must have thought it was cute at one point, but needless to say, it does not exactly BLEND with the current decor around here.  But it was a good size and seemed to have some potential.

I hadn't noticed this before somehow, but it has a nice little ropy detail running along the entire edge!  It had blended right in with the greyish, weird, light brown "wood". 

Kind of added another challenge, because I wasn't anticipating it at the time and didn't want to ruin the frame.  But as luck would have it, it's just kind of inset INTO the frame - not glued or anything!  So it basically just ripped right out!

 I went to work figuring out how to dismantle this baby.

 

Alot of your less expensive cheap "art" will have something like this on the back.  These little brackets are bendy and attach the frame to the backing. 

With a little help from my super sophisticated stash of power tools....

Okay, I mean my CHEESE SPREADER..... I was able to get the whole thing apart in approximately 3  minutes. 

Now, this particular piece of priceless art was so cheap well-made, that it didn't even have real glass as a protective cover.   Just a sheet (which DID break) of super stiff plastic something-or-other.   I was thinking I'd save it to use for SOMETHING, but this part did bend and break into a bunch of little pieces.  Well, you win some - you lose some.

Anyways, I took the frame (with the rope torn out) and the cardboard backing outside to paint.

This is my secret weapon used to obliterate giraffes.   I found it at AC Moore, I believe, for about $6 and there is not even a DENT put into the amount still left after this, my first chalkboard project.   

I probably have better photos somewhere, but I basically chose an area of my yard that is away from anything that would NOT like to be covered into chalkboard material and also in the sun for fast drying.  I laid an old blanket down to protect the ground below.

I used this to cover the frame - separate blanket a few feet away from the first.

It's just a basic can of ivory color spray paint from Valspar. 

I did NOT prime, I did NOT sand, I did NOT also do anything else that one is supposed to do before painting.  Not that I am recommending that you guys ignore all relevant and practical advice, but sometimes I am a little lot too impatient to take extra steps.   Just point, aim and you are done.

Then I was left with this below.   About 2 coats on each and they dried very quickly being out in the sun.

Now I'm sitting and hoping that the cool little rope detail will look better against the white and HOPING that I can actually get it back into place without a fight.

The first piece actually did.  The rest wasn't willing to go down without a fight.  I'm guessing that the spray paint made the little "valley" that it sits in a bit too tight or something, but the stuff JUST WOULDN'T FIT. 

But with a little help from my friend (FabriTac) I managed to get the rest into place or at least attached to the frame and now all is right with the world. 

I laid the chalkboard covered piece into the frame and repositioned the bracketts that hold it into place.  Again with my sophisticated power tools butter knife.

Looking better and happier already!

See the weird little smudgy thing on the upper left hand corner ( I do this ALL THE TIME, by the way - people will come to my house and compliment something and I ALWAYS manage to point out it's flaw - why - WHY?)  Anyways, that is because I'm not sure that chalkboard paint was MEANT to go over cardboard and erase easily.   This was after trying to use an eraser, which basically just smudged the chalk around - I ended up using a slightly damp paper towel to erase next tiem and it worked perfectly!

For now, it is making it's home right here...

A little corner off the kitchen, next to where I've got the downstairs computer set up.   

The best part about this arrangement was actually an added bonus that I had not planned out..

It hides a multitude of yucky!!   I love lamps on countertops, but hate the mess of cords that you can never REALLY hide.   Plus a small stash of candles and other kitchen debris can be nicely tucked away behind it - out of view!

I'm going to certainly be looking around my house for more hidden treasure - so many things can be turned into something completely New and Useful and Beautiful!  This entire project, by the way, probably took about 3 hours start to finish and that even includes waiting for the paint to dry.  

Happy Weekend Everyone!. 

Smiles and Hugs,
Joyce