How to Make a Chalkboard Design like a Pro

Hi there, I can’t wait to share How to Make a Chalkboard Design like a Pro today. I’ve been thinking about hosting classes locally for a few weeks but wasn’t sure if possible, because my son Bailey is not in pre-school yet. I was so excited when Jasmine’s pre-school told me that they had a spot open for my son. He will be going to pre-school twice a week starting this week, which gives me so much time to work on things I always wanted to do.

Crafty classes are one of those things on my list, I love to teach crafts and connect with others. Who doesn’t love creating pretty chalkboards, right? So, when I saw the opportunity arise, a class was set up and shared it with locals.

I tried to capture as much as I could during the class, to give you a little inside peek. But no worries, you will be able to re-create a beautiful chalkboard design from your home after reading through my tutorial.

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Here we go…

How to Make a Chalkboard Design like a Pro

To get started you will need a design idea, of course. You can find all sorts of ideas on Pinterest, once you have your image/design, save the image to your computer. I used pic monkey to create a printable chalkboard design, Photoshop can be used too.

Step by Step Pic Monkey instructions:

1. Select a Chalkboard design or any other printable design
2. Open the design in picmonkey and select “Effects” > “Edge Sketch”
   • play around with the adjustment until you have a dark edge
3. Next, go to “Super B&W” and adjust the brightness and contrast
4.  Click the “Save” button
5. Give the design a new name and save the image as .jpg to the computer.
6. Open the .jpg image in “Preview” (Mac) and export the image as a .pdf
7. Open the saved .pdf in Adobe Reader and select > “Print” (Command+P)
   • POSTER SIZE INSTRUCTION  
   • make sure your paper size is 8.5×11
   • under “Page Sizing & Handling” select > “Poster“
   • “Tile Scale” adjust from 150%-200% depending how big your Chalkboard is
   • click “Print“
   • tape all pages together and trim if necessary

Transfering the Design to the Chalkboard

• Rub the back of the design with chalk
• Shake off extra loose chalk

• Give a new chalkboard a chalky look by rubbing chalk onto the entire board. Spread the chalk with a cloth or a chalk eraser.
• Flip the design right side up and tape it onto the chalkboard

• Start tracing with a pencil and rotate the chalkboard as needed (for best results: keep your wrist elevated while transferring the design in order to not transfer any unneeded chalk).

• Take a peek at the transferred design, to see if you used enough pressure (adjust pressure if the design is not visible, or rub more chalk to the back of your design)
• Once the entire design has been traced, remove the paper and retrace the lines with a fabric chalk marker to give it a cleaner look. Using a Fabric Chalk Marker is recommended for a long lasting chalk design.

• The last step is to clean up the transferred and retraced design with a moist Q-tip.

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Shop the Supplies

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, but before you go ahead and pin this for later, here are a few images while I was teaching my first class.

// DOWNLOAD DESIGNS // PIN IT //

Supplies I recommend:

• Chalkboard
• Chalk marker
• Fabric chalk pen
• Chalk Eraser
• Printer

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