Chalkboard Ideas for Every Season

A LONG while back one of my sisters requested that I do a blog post with ideas for chalkboard designs and messages.  Over the past 3 years, I have been snapping pictures of the chalkboards I have in my home each time I change the design, with a plan to one day share them.  

Now that I have an good number to share, I am finally fulfilling my sister's request. 

I made my chalkboards from thrift store pictures and chalkboard paint a few years ago, but they can be found just about anywhere. I have a small board in the kitchen (similar here), a larger one in my dining room (similar here); and I also use a tall, skinny one as a menu board. 

I have tried out the chalk markers that your can buy nowadays. This one writes beautifully, but if you plan to change your board very often, I recommend classic crayola school chalk. It is dirt cheap, and is super easy to wipe off and change often.

Be sure to pin or bookmark this post, because I will continue to add photos to it as I add new designs in the coming months and years!

This was from this past Christmas. My talented 13-year-old son drew the Santa. 

 I kept this one up for several months. Here in rainy WA, I need a reminder of all the bright spots in my life!

 Newsies. I hope you are singing and dancing now.

 Valentines Day. Or just because.

A little reminder for each of us as we leave the house each day. 

I did this one for a bridal shower and wedding reception. 

In the kitchen.

Halloween

I love layering my chalkboards in with my other decorations. 

More kitchen fun.

I did this for the first week of the art class I teach.

Another Christmas design. 

Home Tour: Fall and Halloween Decor

Happy Fall, Y'all!  

I frequently get asked about my handmade fall decor, so I decided to share a few areas of my home and how the decorations came to be.  I have a kid-friendly house, so nothing is fancy or expensive.  I like decorating (especially handmade stuff), but I LOVE how excited my kids get when they see that I have added fun festivity to our home! It makes me smile, too. (:

MY SIDEBOARD

 (pictured above), located in my dining room 

• Autumn Grasses. Purchased at JoAnn's, similar here and here. 
• BOO letters. I spray painted them with a warm white, then painted the rims gold. Find the letters here. 
• Chalkboard. Made using a second hand framed picture from Goodwill, using this tutorial. 
• Fabric Pumpkins. Handmade using this blog post. 

DOOR WREATHS

• Wreath form purchased at Joann's (similar here).  After trying several kinds of forms, I now have a pretty strong opinion that the kind made of pressed, shaped straw wrapped in plastic is the most sturdy. Just my 2-cents.
• Burlap and fabric flowers made using tutorial found here and here. 
• Feathers made from yarn and liquid starch. Tutorial found here. 

FOYER

• Floral pieces and Pumpkin from Joann's. 
• Thankful board: 1x4 wood, painted light brown, then sanded around edges to distress. Vinyl "thankful."
• Sitting scarecrow: This was a hand-me-down from my mom. :)

DINING ROOM

• Table: Tray and metallic balls from Pier One.  Leaves from JoAnn's. Vintage lace table runner made according to this tutorial. 
• Mini mason jar floral arrangement:  These are the Atlas Mason jars that Classico Pesto comes in. I always save them. They make excellent small drinking glasses for my kids, and they are adorable in decorating.  I painted these with a warm white spray paint.  Floral pieces are from JoAnn's.

FIREPLACE

• Painting (of Colorado Rockies in Fall) available here. 
• Wool Ball Garland made using these.
• Fall Feather Garland tutorial found here.  
• Letterboard is "The Poet" from Letterfolk.

Perfect! Whole Wheat Ginger Cookies

I chose the word "perfect" to describe these cookies for good reason.  I can honestly say I wouldn't change a single thing about how these turned out. I made a second batch, just to be sure.  

Lightly crispy edges and chewy, soft insides make these delicious (and because they are 100% whole wheat--nutritious!) cookies unsurpassed. This will be a new go-to recipe, especially during the fall and winter months when ginger, cinnamon and cloves smell so warm and comforting. You can unplug that scented wax warmer while making these babies. Your house will smell AMAZING!

One thing that is unique about this ginger cookie recipe, is it doesn't call for molasses. I love molasses cookies, but I don't always have it on hand. What I do always have around is maple syrup. I decided to put maple syrup in the recipe and couldn't be more pleased with the results!  

Perfect Whole Wheat Ginger Cookies

Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (all-purpose works)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup 

1 egg

1/4 cup granulated sugar (for rolling)

Dash of ginger, cinnamon, cloves (for rolling)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray or line cookie sheets.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda salt and spices.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar. Add maple syrup and egg, beating well.  Pour in flour mixture and stir well. Dough will be thick. 

4. In a small bowl, stir granulated sugar with a dash of each of the spices. Using a medium cookie scoop or tablespoon, make 1-inch cookie dough balls. Roll each ball in sugar, and place 3 inches apart on cookie sheets. 

5. Bake 9 minutes, or until very light brown on edges. Middles should rise, but still look un-done when you remove the cookies from the oven. Wait 2-3 minutes to remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. The cookies will flatten as they cool, and firm up so they hold together nicely. Store in an air-tight container.

Participating in these link-ups. 

Candy Pretzel Owls

We had some kitchen creativity time on Sunday. It was rainy outside, and we were needing some hands-on production. I came up with these cute owls and even made a video tutorial to share how to make them!

They can also be made in smaller batches in the microwave, which was the method I used to test the idea. 

Enjoy!!

https://youtu.be/OyqZyyCtHaY

Participating in these link-ups. 

Fall Feather Garland

Living in the Pacific Northwest makes saying goodbye to summertime hard.  What we are really saying is "Hi, Rain. You are here for the next 5 months (at least)." 

I am embracing Autumn, though, and all that comes with it.  I love the colors. I love opening my blinds more often to let the (somewhat cloudy) sunshine in! My birthday is in the fall. So is Halloween and Thanksgiving!  And I love decorating my house with fall decor!

After putting together a wreath for my last post, Yarn Feather Tutorial, I decided to change out my Summer Flower Garland for a Fall Feather Garland! I am loving how it turned out!

I started by making a bunch of feathers using my tutorial.  I decided to trim most of the feathers, but leaving some un-trimmed also looks great. 

Each feather takes about 15-20 minutes. Put your feet up, put on some Netflix, and you'll have enough whipped out in no time! These represent about 2.5 hrs of work. 

Here they are trimmed up. Sharp scissors are key.

I used gold craft paint on a few, and I sprayed them with an acrylic sealer (not essential, but I'd like these to last!). Finally, I bent their stems (which is a covered pipe cleaner, so easily bent), and attached them to some bakers twine. So easy!

Participating in these link-ups.

Yarn Feather Tutorial

I recently saw some gorgeous handmade feathers on Pinterest and decided I HAD to learn how to make them! It was time to change out my 4 Season Wreath, and feathers were my big idea for fall. 

 I learned from this excellent tutorial at Infarrantly Creative, but also came up with some additional ideas during the creative process that added to the ease of this exciting craft! I am thrilled to share! 

Here are the main items you'll need: 

• Pipe Cleaners (in colors that correspond to your yarn); Mine are 12 inches long.
• Glue stick (the kind used in school--not hot glue)
• Yarn, embroidery thread, baker's twine, or other thin, flexible string
• Liquid Starch (I found mine at my grocery store in the laundry detergent aisle--cost $3-$4)
• Good scissors
• Craft paint (optional)
• Not pictured: Shallow tray for soaking (I used a disposable lasagne pan lid), Cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil/ gallon zipper bags

1. Take a pipe cleaner in a color corresponding to the yarn you are using. Coat one end and a couple inches of it with the glue stick. I used some scrap paper under me to protect my workspace from stickiness.

2. Beginning at the glue end, wrap yarn tightly and closely around the pipe cleaner. When you get past the glued area, add a few more inches of glue, and continue wrapping. 

3. Once the pipe cleaner is all wrapped in yarn, cut off the end, and add a dab of glue to hold the tail in place.  Set this aside.

4.  Cut about 12 feet (needn't measure--basically a LONG piece) of yarn. Fold it in half, then fold the doubled length in half again. Continue folding it in half until the length of the bunch of thread is about 8 inches (give or take an inch).

 5. Cut the folded edges off to make several equal-sized pieces of thread.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to get 60-80 pieces of yarn the same length.

7. Now take the covered pipe cleaner and secure the end of it that doesn't have tail (the end you began covering) with something heavy (I used a weight).  Beginning at the other end, tie a single knot around the pipe cleaner, placing the knot in the middle of the piece of thread. Repeat this with the rest of the yarn, tying each knot right under the preceding one. 

8. I wanted long feathers, so I only left about 3 inches of stem.  I was pleasantly surprised how quickly the tying went. Each feather only took about 15 minutes to tie. 

Here are my three incomplete feathers for this project. The white one is made with baker's twine. The other two are acrylic yarn.

9. Pour some liquid starch in a flat, shallow container. Set each feather in the liquid one at at time, pressing down to make sure all the yarn is immersed.  Remove from liquid and gently squeeze excess (but don't wring out).  Once you have soaked each feather, pour leftover starch back into the bottle to save for future use.  You can clean up the soaking container in your kitchen sink with warm soapy water. 

10. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or heavy, smooth plastic (I used zipper storage bags, but will use aluminum foil next time).  Form the feathers into the shapes you desire. Be particular here because once the dry, they can't be re-shaped without re-soaking them. 

11. Place the cookie sheet in a warm (170 degree F) oven.  Don't go hotter this (you don't want to melt the acrylic thread or plastic bags). I let mine "cook" for 15 minutes at a time, then turned the oven off and left them in the oven with it off.  Drying time will vary--yarn takes longer than twine-- but using the oven is MUCH faster than waiting on the feathers to air-dry.  The oven method will take 2-4 hrs. Air drying will take 24-48 hrs.  

12. Once feathers are dry and stiff, you can trim them to the shape you desire. Use strong, sharp scissors to get through the stiffened yarn. I trimmed the blue and brown feathers, but left the white one as is. I liked the shaggy look of it for my project.

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13.  Acrylic craft paint can be added to the feathers.  I LOVED this part of the process. I have all kinds of projects swimming around in my head to make feathers and paint them now!

Adding a final coat of acrylic sealer is optional, but will improve the longevity of the feathers, especially if you are using them in an outdoor setting. 

I added the feathers to my 4-Season Wreath (tutorial found here). I wanted a new look for fall, and I am LOVING it!

Participating in these link-ups.