Love chalkboard art but not blessed with the talent of expert chalkboard artists? No doubt you have seen the work of skilled artists using liquid chalk to create amazingly crafted quote boards on your travels. Below we are going to teach you how to become an expert chalkboard artist instantly so you too can create your own professional looking chalkboard quotes and designs at the drop of a hat! Let’s face it, when it comes to creating magic looking designs whether on paper or any other medium it either takes years of practice or an innate talent.
The team at Crafty Croc wants you to experience the pleasure of creating professional looking designs without professional skills and the time and effort usually required to achieve them.
It is really simple when you know how so let’s take a look at what’s required for you to achieve chalkboard mastery!
Print out your Chalkboard Template of choice and prepare your chalkboard and graphite tracing paper.
Lay your quote template over the top of the graphite paper and line it up on your chalkboard so it has equal spacing at the top, bottom and sides.
Use sticky tape to hold the template and graphite paper in place ensuring you don’t move the stencil during the process and keeping the paper tight and flat on the chalkboard.
Use the ball point pen to then trace around the outline of the lettering and the design. You can see in our image below where we have traced around the lettering and the mug with the pen – transferring the design onto the chalkboard with the graphite tracing paper. Make sure you do not miss any letters or parts of the design and try to keep as close and accurate to the edges of the template lettering as possible for best results.
Once you have finished tracing the lettering, remove the stencil template, the graphite paper and the sticky tape from the chalkboard and you will see the outline of the template transferred to the chalkboard (see the image below).
At this point you are ready to start using your Crafty Croc chalk markers to color over the graphite outlines. Be sure to follow the preparation instructions for your chalk markers before you start. Doing this will ensure that the liquid chalk comes out thick and provides great coverage and bold color!
Continue to fill in all the lettering. You can reverse the Crafty Croc® nibs depending on whether you require the ability to make fine lines or are wanting to fill large areas. The nibs on the chalk pens are chisel on one end and bullet point on the other. Simply use your fingers to pull the nib out from the pen and reinsert it the way you require.
Almost done. Try not to rub out the graphite tracings with your hand while you are blocking in the lettering with your liquid chalk marker.
That’s the lettering complete! There is one optional step you might like to do also to make your chalkboard look a little more rustic and authentic. See Step 9 below for more details!
In order to make your chalkboard look a little more authentic and rustic (especially if it is the type covered in adhesive chalkboard paper), we recommend you season the chalkboard using regular white chalk. This is in fact best done before you start any of the process above. Simply lay the stick of chalk on its side on the chalkboard and use your fingers to rub it over the entire area so you have coating of white chalk over the chalkboard.
In this example, we have applied the chalk stick after the main design was applied to the board using the liquid chalk markers.
We hope this inspires you to get busy with your chalkboard creations! It should certainly give you a jump start in getting the professional look.
Of course – once you are done, please share your creations on our Facebook page for us to see! And if didn’t already, head on over to our page now and give it a “like” to keep up to date with our latest news, giveaways, specials and deals!
