Every year (well, for the past two years), me and two of my best friends get together to have a little Christmas dinner. It's usually a bunch of finger foods and dessert, but it's always a great time. Anyways, I wanted to make them something cute for their Christmas presents! So I decided to make them little chalkboard message boards for their fridges!
I started by going to Michael's and picking up two unfinished 4x6 wood frames, some paint (pink and red are their favorite colors, and I got off white for the pattern, and of course, chalkboard paint), magnets, ribbon, chalk, and a stencil. When I got home, I cut two pieces of cardboard a little bigger than the openings in the frame, and pulled out my fabritak glue!
I painted the cardboard pieces with the chalkboard paint, doing two coats to make sure it covered well, and waiting an hour between the coats.
Then I also painted the frames, including the edges. You'll want to do two coats on these as well.
Once the frames were dry, I picked out two parts of the stencil, put them on the frame, and then painted a couple coats.
Unfortunately, the paint did bleed under the frame just a little, but it still looks really pretty!
Then, once the paint was completely dry, using my fabritak glue (or super glue, or hot glue, whichever you have), I glued the cardboard to the back of the frame, pushing it down to make sure it held. And then I glued four magnets onto the back!
The part that I struggled with was figuring out how to attach the chalk so that it wouldn't get lost, or always fall down. I ended up cutting some ribbon, gluing it the back of the frame (so that it would wrap across the top and hang) and then double knotted the other end around the chalk!
And now the completed frames! You'll want to make sure the chalkboard paint cures for at least 24 hours and then rub them with the chalk before you actually write on them, so the words don't become permanent on the board. The only issue with using cardboard, is you do get some of that ripple effect, but in general it's super cute!
I also had bought a piece of wood for this project, but then ended up not using it (I won't go into my failed idea, for it), and looking at their chalkboards made me want one too...so I painted the wood, added my own pattern, glued the ribbon and chalk to the back along with some magnets, and ta-da! My own message board!
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