A Distressed Chalkboard that was distressing

The other day the clerk at Walmart made a remark about my purchases of Mod Podge, iron-on transfers, spray paint, etc., etc., etc.

“You must be really crafty!”

Me: No. Actually I’m an artist. I don’t do so well with crafts.

Her: Really? There’s a difference?

Me: Definitely – crafty people are really creative and handy. I mainly just paint.

And when I do crafts there’s often a lot of prayers. And swearing. Not necessarily in that order either. I didn’t mention that tidbit to her.

I classify this chalkboard as a craft. And yes, true to form, there was a lot of swearing and I just might have callouses forming on my knees.

It started out alright.

Don’t all crafts start out just fine?

It was missing a piece of wood that would’ve covered that little slit.

But, hello . . . $2? I’ll do without the wood piece.

And, just in case you were wondering, No, I’m not one of those handy crafty bloggers who uses power tools. Especially saws. {shudder}

Ok, maybe a drill once in a while, but that’s about the extent of it.

Since I’m still on my turquoise mission, I went on the hunt for turquoise spray paint. It was quite a hunt. I checked Walmart, Michaels, another craft store, hardware stores.

Nothing. Nada. No turquoise.

What is up with that?!? Don’t these guys know how popular turquoise is?

{it still is, isn’t it???}

I found some beautiful light blues and some light aqua, but no turquoise.

I finally found this light turquoise at True Value Hardware. But it wound up being lighter than the cap, which, by the way is a pet peeve of mine.

Note to all Spray Paint Manufacturers: can you please, please try a little harder to match the caps to the color that comes out of the can?

Thank you.

Ahem. Where was I? Oh, yeah . . . turquoise. Why I was so obsessed with finding a spray paint is beyond me when I had this gorgeous color in my paint drawer.

It’s reading a lot bluer than it does IRL. It’s the perfect shade of turquoise.

 

And this, my dear friends, is what I use for a glaze. I’ve used it for over 15 years on walls, canvas, wood – you name it.

I started using Floetrol back in 1996 when I began playing around with faux finishes. Back then there were no glazes to be had in Northern California. One of the books recommended Floetrol and I stuck with it.

Oh, I’ve tried a few glazes from time to time, but I just can’t see enough of a difference to justify the extra cost. Especially if the project is for my own home.

I know a lot of you love Ralph Lauren glaze on your refinished furniture which is great. I’m just too dang cheap.

So here’s the frame – spray painted, glazed with turquoise, and a light distressed sanding.

So far so good. No major mishaps, other than too many shopping trips for spray paint when I could’ve basecoated the dang thing already and saved about $15 of gas. (j/k)

Now, here’s where I always get stuck on ‘crafts’. I knew it needed something painted on the top and bottom, but I couldn’t decide what.

Lilacs? Nah. Not lavender.

Dragonflies? Maybe. But one on top and one on the bottom? I wasn’t feeling it.

So I looked around the house and realized that while most of the furniture is just a traditional style, a lot of our art and accessories has a bit of an asian vibe. Or contemporary.

At least, that’s the direction we’d like to head. If you saw the house now you’d think I was nuts.

You wouldn’t be alone either.

But, looky what I found on my crafty shopping trip! Three inch stencils!

Yes, I realize I’ve said over and over again how I’m stencil-impaired, but I thought it was time to give stencils, and myself, a chance again.

The fact that the stencils are turquoise was just a coincidence – even if I did take it as a sign from my crafting muse. That, and they were only $3.

So, at first I thought about these classic ‘S’ scrolls. Looking at it now, it would’ve been the best choice, I think.

But I ditched the scrolls because I wanted something a little more graphic. Like a diamond.

I’ve been paying attention to my blogging sistas who actually know what they doing and made the height twice the size of the width.

 

Then I just cut out the diamond. The stencil pack came with a blank piece, which was another sign – or so I thought at the time.

At the last minute, I bailed on the stencil idea. I just couldn’t bring myself to try it. I just used the diamond as a template instead.

Now, whether you stencil, use a template, or try it freehand, chances are you’ll paint outside the lines. Like I do. A lot.

A lot. A lot. A lot!

Here’s an easy way to fix overpainting – while the paint’s still wet, grab a clean paintbrush, dampen it with clean water and ‘erase’ the paint that’s outside the pattern line.

And if you know how to take a left-handed pic when you’re right-handed, could you let me know?

Thanks.

At this point, I couldn’t decide whether to leave the diamonds alone or put something on top of them. Like a dragonfly. Or even a scroll.

So I just left it alone and sprayed it with a clear sealer.

Then I taped the frame off and painted 3 coats of chalkboard paint.

 

Yes, I said I taped off the frame.

Obviously I didn’t tape too well.

I just grabbed the sandpaper and took it off. But by this time, the little craft was beginning to get on my nerves.

And then the coup d’grace. (Translation from Wikipedia: a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. Seriously!)

Bubble, bubble, toil & trouble.

Why the paint bubbled, I have no idea. It’s in about four areas. Could’ve been the spray paint. Could’ve been humidity. Could’ve been I didn’t let the spray paint fully cure.

All I know is if I sand it off then I’ll have to take everything down and start over because of the glazing.

For a $2 chalkboard? I think not!

I just think of it as a little vintage character.

After the chalkboard paint cured, I ‘seasoned’ it with a coating of chalk.

So maybe it’s not a ‘wounded creature’. It just has some issues, like most of my craft projects.

Here’s the main one now – I have no idea where to hang the dang thing. You’d think the kitchen, right? Well I have a paneled door on the pantry that I’m gonna paint with chalkboard paint, so I don’t need this little guy.

Two chalkboards downstairs? Nah, I don’t think so. I think he’ll have to go upstairs.

The other issue is the slit. Great for hanging with a nail! But then what?

Ideas?