Crafty Weekend

So, one of my friends wanted a big chalkboard that’s also magnetic for her kitchen.  We headed to a local antique mall and she found a big old frame already painted in a super light robin’s egg blue and ruffed up a bit…perfect!

It had a mirror in it, but that’s okay.  We took off the old frame backing and removed the mirror.  There were a million little staples very tightly holding the mirror in, so it took quite a bit of elbow grease. 

After that we picked up a piece of sheet metal at Home Depot and cut it with tin snips to fit the frame insert.  Something to note…aluminum sheeting is NOT sheet metal and it’s NOT magnetic…just sayin.  Not that we bought aluminum sheeting and cut it just to find out that our magnets didn’t stick.  Nope, not us, we didn’t do that!

Of course the sheet metal didn’t fit exactly as expected, so it took some trimming to get it just right.  Does this always happen to everyone or just me? 

The next step was to paint the sheet metal with about a gazillion coats of chalkboard paint.  Actually it was about 5 or 6 coats, but it felt like a gazillion!  Even with all those coats it’s not a perfectly even black surface, but it’s pretty close. 

Now, instead of of putting the big, heavy original frame backing back on, we decided to pick up some foam core and good old Duck Tape.  We put the chalkboard into the frame, backed it with foam core we cut to size and taped it all around with the Duck Tape. 
 
Here’s the finished board.  It works great and it’s magnetic.  Not that pathetic, almost not existent magnetic strength you get with magnetic paint, but a super strong magnetic hold. 

While we had the chalkboard paint out, we made these basket labels using a package of little wooden signs we got at Michaels. 

I also made this magnetic chalkboard for my office door at work.  The frame is from Cut it Out and the wooden flower cut-out came from Pick Your Plum.  I just painted the frame and mod podged some scrapbook paper onto the flower.  I sanded both and used some antiquing gel.  I love how it turned out. 

Here’s another project using a Cut it Out frame, but this one is scrapbook paper over a sheet metal insert to make it magnetic for hanging notes or photos. 



Now, what’s the next project going to be?? 

Linking up at Somewhat Simple...