Back to school time can have different meaning to different people.  When I was in school it meant seeing friends I didn’t get to see over the summer, shopping for school clothes, picking out a cool new trapper keeper (I might be dating myself here!), and best of all it meant organizing and decorating my locker!  I used to spend hours picking out pictures of friends, and searching for anything that seemed worthy enough to hang on that small canvas known as my locker door.  It was a means of self expression, a conversation starter among friends and also a place where the occasional note was left stating the latest school gossip.  Oh how I loved my locker!

Here is a tutorial for the tween or teenager in your life who is looking for the perfect way to express themselves, and also have a handy little space to write a reminder of a paper due or important club meeting.  For the purpose of this tutorial I designed a chalkboard that is on the girly side, however, depending on the selection of paint color and embellishments this project could easily be suited for a boy.

Materials Needed:

• Unfinished 5×7 wood picture frame with plexiglass insert
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Chalkboard vinyl (my new favorite craft product!!!!)
• Embellishments
• Ink pad
• Velcro
• Glue gun, tacky glue or glue dots
• Scissors
• Sand paper
• Magnets
• Ribbon
• Chalk

Let’s Get Crafting!

Remove the backing and plexiglass from you picture frame and paint with the color of your choice.

Let dry. Once dry, sand the outside and inside edges to expose some of the bare wood underneath.

Use your ink pad to highlight the sanded areas by lightly running the ink on the exposed wood.  For the purpose of this tutorial I chose to use a brightly colored ink, however a brown ink would look great, and give your finished product an aged appearance.

While you are waiting for the ink to dry on your frame, you may begin working on applying the chalkboard vinyl.  I used the frame insert and plexiglass as a template to cut my piece of vinyl to fit inside the frame.  To apply the chalkboard vinyl, peel off a small corner of the paper backing. Stick it directly to the picture frame glass making sure to align the sides and corners.  Slowly peel away the rest of the vinyl paper backing while smoothing any air bubbles from the surface of the vinyl.

Insert the chalkboard piece into the frame and add embellishments.

Cut a piece of ribbon to fit around your chalk and secure the ends with glue.  Add Velcro to the back of the chalk and to the picture frame.

Attach a magnet or two to the back of the frame and your new locker chalkboard is complete!

I could also see this as a cute little craft to make as a door sign.  You could add a piece of ribbon to the back to hang from a hook or door knob.  The possibilities are really endless.  What do you think?  Where would you use this craft?