Chatfield Court

Easy Chalkboard Calendar Tutorial

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Last Friday I shared the chalkboard that I made from a $10 vintage dresser mirror. I hung it in the kitchen, that’s in the middle of a reno, and created a monthly calendar on it to keep track of our appointments and other happenings.

Easy chalkboard calendar after| chatfieldcourt.com

I love how the calendar turned out but it took some work to get it looking like that. I’m not a natural artist and I have shaky hands, so I had to cheat a little and come up with a few tricks to get the look I wanted.

Easy chalkboard calendar before| chatfieldcourt.comNaturally I started with a clean slate chalkboard. I knew that I wanted to have a monthly calendar but I really had no idea what I was going to do, so I started with the month and worked my way from there. Actually, I winged it.  I mean it’s a calendar right? We all know what they need need to look like. 😉

I started my calendar with the month. Here is my cheat #1. I went into Picmonkey, found a font I liked, and printed out November.

Easy chalkboard calendar printed month and box of chalk | chatfieldcourt.comNext I turned the paper over, took a piece of white chalk and began tracing the letters.

Easy chalkboard calendar printed month and chalk | chatfieldcourt.comCheat #2 is to make sure that you always keep a point on your chalk, I used a small eyeliner sharpener. It just makes the job easier.

Easy chalkboard calendar pencil sharpener and chalk | chatfieldcourt.comAfter I was done tracing the letters, I taped the paper, right-side up, on the chalkboard. I took a Sharpie, with the lid on, and traced over the letters, pressing firmly. The goal is to transfer the chalk on to the board.

Easy chalkboard calendar with printed November paper| chatfieldcourt.comOnce I removed the paper, I was left with this…

chalkboard art 8All I had to do was to trace over the letters to fill them in, using your sharpened chalk.

Easy chalkboard calendar November | chatfieldcourt.comCheat #3 is an easy way to fix mistakes. I used a craft brush and water to lightly touch up around my letters to make them look neater. Just remember to wipe your brush on a paper towel often to keep it clean. So easy, right?

Easy chalkboard calendar craft brush and water | chatfieldcourt.comNow it’s time to draw the calendar. In order to fit all the squares evenly, I used a tape measure to figure out where my lines would go and marked the places with chalk. Then I used a level to make straight lines.

Easy chalkboard November calendar drawing lines | chatfieldcourt.comAfter the lines were done, I filled in the numbers.

Easy chalkboard November calendar | chatfieldcourt.comThe days of the week were next. I was going to use the same method that I used for “November”, but I had a hard time squeezing the words in, so I just free-handed the abbreviations.

Easy chalkboard November calendar. A fun DIY! | chatfieldcourt.comMy calendar was done but I wanted to add a little somethin, somethin to it, so I drew a vine on each side and 2 leaves on top from stencils that I made when I added some fall to my old chippy window (cheat #4).

I do have to take credit for my awesome turkey. I know you think that I must have used some fancy stencil, but nope…it was all me. ;P

So, now you know that I used several cheats and a little bit of time to make my chalkboard calendar. I hope I was able to convince you to give it a try.

Easy chalkboard November calendar. A fun DIY! | chatfieldcourt.com

 

 

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  2. Gooble, gooble! You have a cute turkey! I’m going to go to Picmonkey to see what I can find. I wonder if your method of transferring a design would work for other methods such as ink e.g. markers. I’m having trouble transferring designs onto painted wood surfaces. They come out too light and when it is script and small I can’t see it to go over it with paint.
    I re-did the mirror I had with chalk paint. It came out fine this time. I think it was the chalk I was using. It was very old pieces and it was like using a pencil or pen on the chalkboard so it scratched the paint off.
    Nice tutorial!

    Reply

    • Thanks MJ!

      Picmonkey has tons of fonts so hopefully you can find one that works.

      I’ve seen petrified chalk like you described and I’m sure that’s what caused your scratch. Glad that you were able to fix your chalkboard.

      So glad you stopped in to visit and I hope you have a great week!

      Reply

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