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?
Leave a Reply