chalk it up...

Well, all the kids in my neck of the woods started school this week. I know for a fact that they were not all thrilled about this, but some of the parents might me....

In honor of the new school year, today's tutorial is on chalkboards.

No, I'm not suggesting you take your jars of Creative Inspirations Paint to your local school and start decorating all the chalkboards. For some reason, I don't think the teachers would like that too much. 

Instead, why don't we make our own?

What you need:

A Base* 

Dark Acrylic Paint

Gesso

Jar/bowl 

Paint Brush

Stamps

Light Pigment Ink

Tiny Paint Brush

Creative Inspirations Paint

*I am using chipboard, but for a sturdier board, wood would be better

 Step 1: pour some gesso into your bowl or jar. Make enough to complete your whole project. If you have to make a new batch, it is really hard to match color exactly!

(I like to use a jar with a tight sealing lid so I can save any leftovers for other projects)

 Step 2: Add some dark acrylic paint. 

 Step 3: Stir your paint mix. 

*If the mixture is not dark enough, add more paint until you are happy. (due to the nature of adding black to white, you going to end up with gray.... but you can get a darker gray by adding more black paint.. this same principle applies to any color which is why you want to start out with a very dark paint color.)

 Step 4: Apply your paint mix to your base with long even strokes. You want to keep the surface as smooth as possible.

 Step 5: Once the first coat is dry, apply another coat using long smooth strokes. 

*Notice that the paint does dry slightly darker 

At this point you are probably wondering where the CI paints come in... well, they are to decorate! After all, no teacher can complain about paint on THIS board!  =)

Here you can use this technique I showed last week, but I wanted to share another way of painting on dark backgrounds for those who don't mind a little detail work.... The CI colors will be bolder with this technique than with last weeks. 

 Step 6: Stamp Your desired image with light pigment ink and heat set.

 Step 7: using a tiny liner brush, paint in the stamped areas.

Yes, this is time consuming.. However I find the time consuming detail work very relaxing. Yes, I am well aware that I am slightly strange. =)

finish embellishing as desired... I added a ribbon to mine so it can hang on the wall. 

Enjoy!

~Kassi