DIY Sunday: Chalkboard Lettering

Hello!

So it's actually Thursday, and I'm blogging ahead. I like to do that after the kids are in bed. Otherwise, I find that random words find their way into my writing. (i.e. Then you put the...don't put that in your month... fabric in the machine...don't hit your brother) I'm going to schedule this one for Monday so you don't get blog overload. I say that like you spend your days waiting for the next post, and it's not the option when you hit the end of the internet. Does anyone else do that? When Pinterest has nothing new, Lamebook has no new posts and Facebook is filled with people liking other people's cat videos, I often end up here. 

So chalkboards are hot hot right now. I am loving this new old farmhouse trend right now. I know my house will probably be outdated in 2 years as a result. My daughter will bring over friends and be like, "Uh I know. Please ignore the grey walls. They are so 2010." I've attempted to keep things very farmhouse with the hope that plain white farmhouse style will look timeless at an acreage. And I'm resolved to never renovate again. Ever. (Ok...my husband is)

Back to the point. Chalkboards. Love them. Hate chalkboard dust, but I've grown to get over my aversion. However, there is something about chalkboards that magnify all the things I hate about my handwriting. My husband thinks it's super sloppy. I think he writes like a very small human. Like from "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" small.

Last weekend I had the honor of standing up for my beautiful friend's wedding. She got married in the super super cool Historic Homestake Opera House. Do yourself a favor and look at their website. SO cool. My friend had a really neat chalkboard gifted to her at her bridal shower, and she wanted to use it in her wedding. (The bridal shower hostess did a great job on that chalkboard. I love the flowers!) She asked me to write on it.



To Pinterest I go! I searched "How to write on chalkboards." There were some good tips about printing off the typography and tracing it. I didn't have the supplies or time for that. When I found these tutorials from Jones Design Company, I knew it was a slam dunk. (Click here for the tutorial on chalk writing supplies)

This is what her type looked like. Beautiful.


(Picture from Jones Design Company)
So mine isn't that nice. Maybe with some practice it will look better, but I'm so happy about their little fake calligraphy tutorial. It was PERFECT. (Click here for the tutorial) Basically, when you stroke down with your chalk marker, you make the line a bit thicker.

This was the chalkboard I wrote on for the wedding.



To give you an idea. Here is a little chalkboard pumpkin I picked up for a buck at the dollar store. This was before adding in the extra downstrokes. Normal plain sloppy writing.



And After.



Once again. Not perfect, but it does seem to polish it up nice.