This month at Fi Fy Fo Fum Designs our theme has been rustic weddings. We've been seeing lots of fun DIY blackboard ideas on Pinterest, so we thought we'd have a go at creating a few wedding decor items out of rustic recycled products and chalkboard paint.
There are lots of chalkboard paint products out there at the moment. I've seen chalkboard contact, paper, stickers, spray paint, chalk textas and coloured chalkboard paint. We decided to stick to chalkboard paint for our projects.
Chalkboard named glasses
Materials
-old glasses (50c from an op shop)-chalkboard paint &/or chalkboard stickers
-paintbrush
Method
1) Clean and dry the glasses2) Paint the top of the base of the wine glasses from them stem out to the edge of the glass with chalkboard paint. You wont need to masking tape the stem of the glass for a neat line, it looks fine a bit rough. I've seen people dipping the whole base of the wine glass in paint but that looked too messy for me and I was worried the paint might rub off on the table when it was being used.
3) For the other glasses paint a rough patch of paint on the glass. Make sure the patch is long enough for a name to be written with chalk (mine were a bit short). Repeat with a second coat. I think I'd use chalkboard stickers for these next time as I found some of the paint scratched off when I wrote on them with chalk. Stickers would be more durable and reusable.
Chalkboard metal serving trays
Materials
-metal trays ($3-10 at an opp shop)-chalkboard paint
-paintbrush
-tailors chalk
-pencil
Method
2) With a steady hand and a loaded paintbrush paint the inside of the tray leaving the edge with no paint on it. Gentle curves with plenty of paint on your brush will keep the curves smooth. I start with the outside first and then fill in the middle.
3) I used a printed template for the text. I scribbled over the back of the text with a chalk pencil (tailors chalk) and then placed it on the chalkboard chalkside down and traced over the text with a pencil. This pressed the chalk onto the chalkboard and gave me a rough outline to fill in with the chalk. I found chalk really hard to work with neatly to get clear lines, so next time I would use a chalk texta. I tried the chalk pencil but it scratched the paint off the glass and metal. It would work fine on chalkboard stickers or paper though. Chalkboard wine bottle table numbers
Materials
-old wine bottles-chalkboard paint/ or chalkboard paint in a spray can
-paintbrush
-chalk and chalk pencil
Method
1) Remove the label using eucalyptus oil or tea tree oil. Clean the bottle well ensuring that all the oil and glue is removed.2) Paint or spray the bottle. I found my dark bottle covered really well so I didn't need to do a second coat. You may need to do a second coat with a lighter coloured/ clear bottle.
Other ideas
-Use chalkboard paper as a placemat for children to draw on-Use a sheet of chalkboard contact for a kiddies corner at your reception
-You could spray paint anything with chalkboard paint and use it as a table number. A garden gnome, stack of old books, garden pot, teapot etc etc.
-Paint MDF coasters or placemats from a craft shop with chalkboard paint
-Make chalkboard photo booth speech bubbles out of chalkboard paper
-Use several sheets of chalkboard contact on a wall for a DIY photo booth where guests can draw their own backgrounds, speech bubbles and props.
