Chalkboard from a Cutting Board

Since I had been sick with a doozey of a head cold, I haven't done too much. Having a tissue stuffed up your left nostril while using the bottom portion to sneeze into kind of puts a damper on doing anything. Especially when you have to change it out every 5 minutes, if you're lucky.

That's why when I seen a cool project by Stephanie on "The Cozy Old Farmhouse" blog, I thought I could manage that one with said tissue sticking out of my nose. Well, there is a teensy little drawback to doing it with a runny nose, but I'll get to that in a bit.

One of the best parts about doing a project is when you have everything on hand already. 

Then next best part to having everything on hand is KNOWING where everything is too! ;) Around here, that can be the trickiest part to any project.

Isn't that a darling idea?! I actually think I seen it before on Pinterest from someone else, but didn't pin it and didn't remember it either, until I seen Stephanie's. I really liked the rustic look it had. Mine is a tad different from hers, since she was trying to fix a faux pas that ended up working out for the better. I think she taped off the shape for hers, but I set out on the wild side & decided to go freehand. 

I took some Minwax gel stain in Aged Oak and coated the entire cutting board, front and back. You just never know if someone doesn't want the chalkboard look and may want it to be plain, so now they have that option. I know, I fret over all kinds of little things that other people may not even dream up. But I like to create multiple uses for things where ever possible. You'd be surprised at some of the complaints I hear as to how someone wishes it looked like something other than what I did.

Oh, and the gel stain? That's where the runny nose can create problems. The next thing you know, your nose is suddenly gushing & now you have brown spots on your nose and above your lip from the stain that's on your fingers & hand. Yeah, it would make for a funny picture for y'all, but I don't live that far on the wild side.
  
Next, I just used some of my brush-on black chalkboard paint (that I purchased at Walmart) - applying 2 coats and letting it dry between each coat. I used a medium sized artist paint brush, so I could have better control for crisp lines around the edge and a smoother finish, in spite of all the cuts in the wood.

After all that, I took some twine and wrapped it around the handle like Stephanie did, sort of. Actually, the chalk hangs down lower than in these pictures, but it kind of screws up seeing the writing on the board, so I wrapped it around the back again after tying it off so it would look nicer for the "money shot."

Now it's ready for my first ever spring craft event!

 



  
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