Inspirations

Inspirations
The color you see is the color you get!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

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


4 comments:

Sarah said...

Love this idea, Kassi! You've given me lots of inspiration for new projects. Hugs, Sarah

Dawnll said...

Now this is an adorable chalk board! Love that you shared the tutorial- I will have to pin on Pinterest.

Holly said...

Such a COOL idea! I never knew we could use regular paint to make our own chalkboards. Love the stamped flourish and shimmery painted flowers!

Creative Inspirations said...

This is cool!