Easy Chalkboard Lettering for the Beautiful Handwriting-Impaired

When I made my large Pottery Barn knock-off chalkboard and my small chalkboard easel I was excited about the prospect of being able to update them with greetings, poems and sayings for each season.

Yes, I did that.  Myself!

I pinned this image on Pinterest last week and couldn’t wait to check it out.

Score!

This SIMPLE tutorial shows us beautiful handwriting-impaired people how to write script/typography on a chalkboard that looks super professional and beautiful.  And, I’m telling you, it is EASY.  It does take some time but if you can outline with a pencil and color inbetween the lines, you can do this!

Here’s how I did it:

First, I found some fonts and words that I liked and wanted to put on my board.  I found this cute printable at My 3 Monsters.

It was too small for my huge chalkboard so I decided to keep it simple and use the word “gratitude.”   I cropped it, made it bigger and then printed it out.

Then I turned the page over, and scribbled chalk all over the back of the word I wanted on the board.  (No the chalk really isn’t pink, I just made it look that way in PicMonkey so it was more visible in the picture.)

Then I turned it back over and outlined the words in pencil that I wanted to appear on my board.

You don’t have to fill the whole word in with the pencil.  A simple outline is enough.  I discovered that firm pressure is all you need.  At first, I started by going over each line several times but found it wasn’t necessary.  Firm pressure is enough to transfer the chalk to the board.

Then I just filled in the outline free-hand with the chalk.  If you can color inside the lines with crayons, you can do this!

My chalkboard is huge, so I printed out Give and Thanks on two separate sheets of paper to fill in a little more space.  I made these words myself in Power Point (Word would work, too) and printed them out on my printer.

I followed the same, simple steps and arrived at this:

I will probably fill in with some leaves and acorns later, and maybe I’ll add a few extra words too, but for now I’m happy.

I’m hoping to hang a little green boxwood wreath (or something similar) from the top of the board if I can find one.  I thought about making my own wreath, too so if I do, I’ll post about it.

I’m super excited about this transfer method.  I’m imagining all the possiblities!  You could make wooden signs this way…paint your background, transfer some words on to it and then paint!

I love it when I find new ways to do things that make such a great impact.  It definitely renews my passion for DIY.