diy: painted vase with a chalkboard label // mother's day inspiration

This DIY was inspired by our mom.  She absolutely loves flowers and gardening!

Kelsey and I found this adorable card on Treat Cards, and we knew we had to get it.  For as long as I can remember our mom has been gardening.  Our backyard is always bursting with flowers, and is so lovely to be in.

This mother's day we will be lucky enough to celebrate with our mom, and both our grandmothers!  Our mom's mom is traveling out from Alberta to stay with us for a while, so that will be lots of fun.  Our mom definitely got her love of gardening from her mother, so I imagine there will be lots of flower love happening this weekend!

Now mom will have a new customizable vase to display her lovely flowers in!

This vase is super cute, and you can use it for any occasion.  Also you can make the chalkboard label as big or small as you would like!

Materials:
-vase (any shape or size - we thrifted ours!)
-acrylic paint (we chose to use white)
-chalkboard paint
-chalk
-masking/painting tape
-paint brush/sponge

Instructions:
1)  First, wash and dry your vase thoroughly.
2)  Pour a generous amount of paint into your vase (more than you think you will need).
3)  Tip your vase on it's side, and rotate it, letting the paint completely cover the inside of the vase.
4)  Pour out any excess paint (you can put this back in the bottle if you wish).
5)  Wipe the lip of the vase clean.
6)  Tip upside down, and let dry overnight.
7)  Using masking tape, tape a rectangle or square onto the vase (in the exact shape you want your chalkboard message label.
8)  Tape exactly around the edges of your first tape rectangle, and peel off the original rectangle.
*or you can always choose to freehand something!
9)  Following the directions of your chalkboard paint, paint it on (I painted on one layer, let it dry for a couple hours, and then painted it on another layer and let it dry overnight).
10)  Once you are sure your chalkboard paint is dry, peel off the tape.  Be very careful while doing this, our chalkboard paint started peeling off with the tape.  You may need to hold down the paint layer with a finger while you slowly peel the tape off.
11)  Use a toothpick to clean up the edges of your chalkboard label.
12)  Now you need to condition your chalkboard.  To do this rub a piece of chalk all over the area covered in chalkboard paint.
13)  With a slightly damp paper towel wipe the chalkboard clean.
14)  Write a fun message!

[repurposed]: whiteboard to chalkboard

So when I was maybe 12 or so, I got a whiteboard for my room.  It was wonderful, and I enjoyed it, but its life was nearly over.  It had a few scratches, and wouldn't quite come clean anymore, and I decided that maybe the time had come to let it go.  And then I remembered chalkboard paint.

Chalkboard paint is basically my new best friend.  I just love it so much.

And so it came to be that I painted my whiteboard with chalkboard paint, and have fallen in love with it all over again.

Materials:

-old whiteboard

-sandpaper (potentially optional)

-paintbrush

-chalkboard paint

Instructions:

1)  First I decided to sand down my whiteboard since the metal was quite slippery, and I was a bit concerned that the chalkboard paint might not adhere very well.  You could maybe get away without this step, but it's a super quick thing to do if you have sandpaper lying around!

2)  Once I finished sanding it, I wiped it down with a slightly damp paper towel to get rid of all the dust.

3)  Finally, I painted a coat of chalkboard paint onto the whiteboard, and let it dry.

4)  After it was completely dry, I decided to do a second coat to make sure all of the scratches and any spots I missed were completely covered.

5)  Let it dry overnight before using chalk on it!

I also found that chalkboard paint tends to look quite streaky as your painting, but once it's dry they disappeared!

I am so excited to use this as a backdrop for future blog posts, a message board, and as a practice board for hand lettering!  I also loved that I didn't spend a dime on this diy, since we had all the materials lying around the house (well...I did trek out to my dad's workshop for the sandpaper!).  I'll definitely attempting to repurpose more things in the future.  It's so rewarding to make something new out of something old!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey