Create blackboard signs for your wedding or party using wood market trays

Monday 28 January 2013

I met so many excited brides at the Total Wedding Show earlier this month and I was delighted to hear how many of them were planning to incorporate personal details and diy projects into their wedding. I had a number of different projects using our products on display at the booth. A few brides asked me about the chalkboards that I created using our wood market trays and today I thought that I would share with you a tutorial on how to make these yourself. I also pulled together some engagement photo ideas using chalkboards that can be used for save the dates!

First, my tutorial ... 
Gather your supplies: wood market trays (we have lots of different sizes of market trays - for this tutorial I used the 18" x 7" rectangular tray), chalkboard paint, a sponge brush, white tracing paper, painter's tape, a pencil and a white china marker. 

Tip number 1: If you want your lettering to be perfect, type out what you want to write on your chalkboard on your computer and print it out so that you can trace it. Select a font that you like and size it to fit onto your chalkboard. If your chalkboard is quite large you can print out your words on more than one piece of paper and tape them together.

Step one. Paint your market tray with chalkboard paint according to the paint directions. I used a foam brush because they are inexpensive and work well with the paint. 

Step two. Cut out the words that you want to copy onto your chalkboard and use painter's tape to hold them in place on the market tray. Place the white tracing paper between the paper and the chalkboard surface so that you can easily trace. Remember that you can move the tracing paper around as you work. Using a sharp pencil and a little pressure, trace your design. 

Step 5. Once you have finished tracing everything remove the paper so that you can see your traced image. It might be a little faint but that is okay. 

Step 6. Now you are ready for the "magic" part. Using a white china marker (it's really a pencil - not sure why they call them markers) go over the letters carefully to create your final design. 

Tip number 2. The white china marker looks like chalk but it does not rub off ... so take your time. Once you are done, you can use a soft cloth to remove any china marker "dust".

My gift to you ... 

To get you started, I designed this art that can be used to create three different chalkboard signs for engagement and wedding photography. Just click on the art above and "save image as" to copy it for your personal use.  

As you can see, I used the "save the date" words in my sample project. I positioned the words on the market tray so that I could easily add a date below with chalk. I can reuse this sign to make "save the date" photo invitations for birthday parties, showers or whatever I want!

Now here's some chalkboard inspiration for wedding "save the dates"  that I pulled together to show you from my Pinterest board ... 


Looking for more chalkboard products for you wedding? We have more items here!





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