marvelous, fantastic, great, happy, awesome, !

Good evening all!
I am sorry it has been awhile but I do have a new craft to share with you which is exciting!!! All of my crafts have a story behind them and of course I'm going to share it with you!

On Saturday, my sister and I were bored at home and I needed a "pick me up" so we went to my favorite thrift store in Murfreesboro (All Things Possible Bargain Center). It's disgusting and you have to dig for things but usually you can find GREAT things! Shawn was less than thrilled but what else is new :) As we get to the store, I see a sign that says "Everything is 50% off!" AHHHHH! I WAS SO EXCITED!

So lately I have been dying to make a chalkboard. I bought the chalkboard spray paint FOREVER ago (Krylon Chalkboard Spray Paint) and it's been killing me just sitting in my closet. So while Shawn and I were shopping at the thrift store, I found the PERFECT frame that was just right for my chalkboard!



BEFORE:

 LOVED the shape of the frame and it's HUGE which is perfect for a chalkboard! Ignore the hideous duck painting currently in it.

AFTER:

I tried to give a close up of the frame so you could see the distressed detailing I attempted!

So there it is! My very own chalkboard which will be great for my apartment next year. The difficulty level was extremely easy! Below are a few steps and tips to help you along the process:

1. Since the chalkboard paint has to sit for 24 hours, I went ahead and did the chalkboard paint first. I just followed the directions that were on the spraypaint can and it worked perfectly!
2. I then started my frame. I knew I wanted it to look "distressed shabby chic like" but didn't know how to do it. So I searched on Google and found a fantastic tutorial that helped me tremendously and worked great! You can find the tutorial here.
3. I chose to paint the first coat a color called "Malted Mint" and then put a coat of plain white over it. In between the mint color and the white color, I followed the tutorial and rubbed candle wax where I knew I was going to distress. I HIGHLY suggest doing this because it makes the 2 colors seperate and not both rub off when you use the sand paper to distress.
4. After I finished distressing my frame and my chalkboard had sat for 24 hours, I assembled my chalkboard and I was done! It really was so simple!

I suggest following the tutorial I linked to very closely when distressing the frame. I also suggest following the directions on the spray paint can as closely as possible. You dont want to stray from the directions during this project!

This project was, as always, CHEAP. The frame was $1.34 (since it was 50% off). The chalkboard paint was $3.79. Everything else I already had! So total this project cost me $5.13. AWESOME!

So give it a try! Chalkboards are so much fun and so useful. You'll love it! :) Thanks for reading!!

(Side note: Shawn claims that the only words I use on my blog are: marvelous, fantastic, great, happy, awesome, and exclamation points. I told her to stop hating on my happiness! Hence why my title for this post are those words. Haha!)