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.

DIY Adult Anna Costume

My youngest, baby, only 5-year-old daughter asked me to be Anna.  That was pretty much all it took.  I had to seize this moment! Who knows if she'll ever ask me to dress up alongside her for Halloween again?!! 

I made my costume in a day. This included going to Wal-Mart to buy all the supplies. (Yes, they were ALL from Wal-Mart--so INEXPENSIVE--Yay!). 

I already had my white blouse and black boots. If you don't have these in your wardrobe already, borrow or try a thrift store to keep the costume cost down.  I also already had the pom pom trim, but similar can be found here or at most fabric stores. 

Here's the breakdown of the supplies and their cost: 

 For the Anna Dress: 

1. I used 1 yard of blue jersey knit fabric and followed THIS TUTORIAL from Altered Cloth to make this simple gathered skirt.  
2. I trimmed the bottom edge of a black camisole to have an angular scallop at the front like Anna's dress does. 
3. I pinned, then sewed on the gold trim--just on the front of the bodice and neckline--and over the straps. 
4. I used chalk to outline the flowers for the bottom of the skirt and the front decoration on the camisole.
5. I used fabric paint to draw over the chalk drawings I made. 

For the Anna Cape: 

1. I used 3 yards of 55"(ish) fleece and THIS TUTORIAL from Skip to My Lou to cut out the two pieces of the cape. The three yards helped it to fit an adult instead of a child (as in the original tutorial). 
2. I sewed pom pom trim to the edge of the capelet (instead of hot gluing--faster and less frustrating!)
3. I layered a strip of leftover fleece (for a tie) between the necks of the caplet and cape and sewed them all together (instead of hot-gluing). A ribbon would work well here, too, but I didn't have any that matched on hand. 

And that's it! Anna is ready!

My costume was a HIT at our church Trunk-or-Treat! There were 2 or 3 little Annas there who would stare up at me with gaping mouths when I said hi! :) And my daughter didn't want to leave my side! She said we were sisters and had to go around together! That made this definitely worth a last-minute effort!

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. 

Easy-Sew Pumpkins

I made these fun pumpkins last year (before I began this blog), but I decided I should share them anyway! I used a super tutorial found here on Positively Simple.  Here a few little tips I learned while making these:

• I found most my fabric on the discount table at JoAnn's. They had a bunch of decorator samples (about 16"x16") for $0.50 each. Score! So check there--I have seen those samples on sale often.
• I played around with the pattern to get slightly different shaped pumpkins. On one pumpkin I made the teardrop shapes more wide, on another I made them more tall.  I loved the simplicity of this design that allowed for tweaking here and there to get the shape you want.
• Use needle nose pliers if you have trouble pulling the needle through the pumpkin center. I was frustrated until I figured out this little hack.
• I skipped hot gluing the cinnamon stick. I tend to skip hot-glue whenever possible. I am usually disappointed with its durability in the long run. I liked the look of just the ribbon. (Obviously this is just my opinion. :))

I made two Dora pumpkins for my daughter to decorate her room with. She adores them!

I loved how the two-tone orange turned out on this one. Both of these fabrics were from the discounted samples swatches I found.

I did some simple embroidery on felt to make this leaf and stem. The stem is stuffed with a couple pieces of felt, then whip-stitched on the edge. I sewed them into the middle instead of hot-gluing. 

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