THE SECRET TO HAND LETTERING ON A CHALKBOARD

Last summer I made a chalkboard for my house and as soon as I got it done I felt ready to start writing adorable hand lettered quotes on it!  Unfortunately as soon as I got started I realized that it was harder than it looks to get the lettering to look like those cutie-patootie fonts that you see everywhere.  In fact, my lettering looked ridiculous!

When I repurposed a set of drawers into storage boxes I needed to figure out how to hand letter and make it look good.  I did some research and I found this quick and simple way to achieve my goal!

Let me show you the secret to hand lettering on a chalkboard!

STEP ONE: “Season” your board by rubbing the side of chalk over the whole surface.  Clean it off with a dry rag or an eraser.  If you do not do this step your original drawing will be difficult to completely erase:

STEP TWO: Figure out what you want on your board and create the text in PicMonkey or other program.  You will not want your lettering to be too thin since you have to trace over it. In case you like the lettering I did you can download the FLOWERS 50 CENTS A BUNCH PDF here.  Please note that your text and quote size will depend on the size of your board. Play around with it until you find something that you love:

STEP THREE: Cut your text as needed to fit onto your board:

STEP FOUR:  With the side of your chalk rub over the entire backside of your printed text.  Be careful not to rub too hard and tear the paper:

STEP FIVE:  Use painter’s tape to secure your text to the board.  Using a #2 pencil trace over the letters:

STEP SIX:  As you can see there is no need for perfection.  You are drawing on a chalkboard after all:

STEP SEVEN:  Remove your tape and paper.  This is what you should see:

STEP EIGHT:  Carefully fill in your text with chalk, erasing any areas that look rough:

STEP EIGHT:  Here is your finished product.  Please note that I crossed the “C” to make a cent sign:

Wasn’t that simple?

Now that I have figured out the secret to hand lettering on a chalkboard I will definitely be revisiting this technique for other projects.  I hope you will too!