DIY: Chalkboard Frames

This past semester I found an interest in calligraphy, typography, and just fonts in general. At first, I was just sketching around doing typography, but I went to Michael's and ended up purchasing a couple calligraphy markers and got into that. (I posted a couple pictures of this kinda stuff at the bottom of the post if you're interested!) Once I realized how fun it was, I wanted to have a way to display it and thanks to the many posts on Pinterest, a Chalkboard Frame seemed to fit the bill. I bought a two different frames at Hobby Lobby, one rectangular and one oval. At first, I thought I would just buy some wood and paint it with chalkboard paint, but life turned out to be a little easier than expected. At Home Depot, they sell thin chalkboard wood which was a blessing from above, because The Lord knows there are only a few weeks left of summer for crafting. I got the wood cut at Home Depot for the rectangular frame, but unfortunately Home Depot doesn't cut anything circular (what's up with that?, don't they know I'm trying to be crafty AND original, ugh). So mom and I pulled out the jigsaw and went at it! If you don't feel comfortable using a jigsaw, I suggest you go for a rectangular frame! I don't know what I'd do without mom to work the tools! After cutting to wood, I put it in the frame and just duct tapped it to the frame on the back because I don't plan on taking it out, and I realized tacks would work because the frame I bought wasn't wood. It was a pretty easy project considering I just bought the different parts and put them together! The hardest part, I found, was the actual writing! Maybe it's just cause chalk gives me the goosebumps, but either way, with anything art related, practice makes perfect! Here are a couple pictures!

Typography and Calligraphy:

DIY: Lilly Pulitzer Print Letters

I've really slacked this summer. I said I would start this crafting blog and I realized I was much busier than I thought. I'm just going to start with this post and hopefully I can redeem myself with the next few.
Mayba (best friend of 13 years, THAT'S friendship) and I went to AC Moore with Mom yesterday and came across these wooden letters. I just recently saw this post on Pinterest from Jessica Marie Design Blog, which I am absolutely in love with, and decided to recreate it for myself.


In my opinion, the craft was pretty easy, except I might not be the best judge of that considering I'm pretty artistic. But if you have a guide for painting it can be pretty simple. I just looked the patterns up on Google and enlarged the image. I bought a capital 'M' and decided to paint the First Impressions print from Lilly Pulitzer (it's my absolute favorite). When I bought it, it was already white, so I didn't bother painting a base coat and just hopped into the pattern. I used acrylic paint for the design and just a couple paintbrushes, nothing too fancy. The second 'M' was for my friend and the print was Cherry Begonias, I believe. Hope you like this craft!

Update: So after going back to AC Moore, I found some pearls and decided I wanted to add to my letter. I glued them on with a glue gun and kept them straight by stringing them on a wire and then just pulling out the wire. It was pretty time consuming, but not too difficult. Here's a picture! I also ended up spraying them with a clear acrylic gloss, to give them a more finished look, but it's definitely not necessary!
 After posting the picture of the 'M' I made, a friend of mine asked if I could make her some letters, so here's a picture of the ones I did for her, in the pattern Chin Chin. Hope you like them!