Dollar Store Tray Chalkboard (Dollar Store Decorating)

Hey Friends!!

I'm so excited to be teaming up with Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage & six other bloggers this week to bring you loads of Dollar Store decorating ideas for Christmas! I am one of two bloggers sharing their dollar store creations today! Karen, from The Graphics Fairy is also taking part in the series today, so when you are done here, you will want to be sure to hop on over to Karen's blog to see her fabulous creation! Ummmkay?!

I have been so inspired with all of the chalk art popping up around blogland & Pinterest over the last few weeks, that I just had to get in on the action! What do you think of my dollar store tray turned chalkboard?!

I originally saw the idea to turn these dollar store trays into chalkboards on Pinterest. I loved the shape of them & thought they would be a great way to display a little chalk art in my home this Christmas! So, I went to our local Dollar Tree & snagged the oval one for my project!

(Source)

I grabbed some chalkboard paint that I already had on hand & gave the center section of the tray a good 3 coats. Once the chalkboard paint is applied, you have to wait 24 hours before writing on it. 

I could have very well left the frame, or the outer rim of the tray silver, but instead I decided to paint it. I just used some craft paint that I already had & brushed it on with a small paintbrush. 

Originally, I thought I wanted the frame to be off white, but I later decided to go back & give it a couple coats of blue paint instead. That's the reason the first picture & the picture you see above differ! I'm just a little fickle! :)

Then, I went to PicMonkey & created my graphics for the chalk art! 

I thought I would go ahead & share these graphics with all of you today just in case you wanted to replicate this little sign! Just right click on the image above, save it to your computer, and print! :)

To transfer the image onto the tray, I just used some tracing paper that I already had. This particular tracing paper was purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. It's a multi-color pack, but I used the white tracing paper for this project.

If you've never used tracing paper before, you basically just put the paper down on the surface you are transferring your image to, place your graphics on top & trace! Simple as that!!

After all the tracing was done, this is what I was left with....

Because I used the white tracing paper, it already gave the look of chalk! Basically all I had to do was clean up the chalkboard a little bit & then go back & fill in the gaps/open spaces in the lettering.

I saw this little tip HERE.

To get a finer tip on your chalk & write prettier, just grab a pencil sharpener & sharpen away! This worked like a dream!! I'll definitely be sharpening my chalk from here on out!! So much easier!

Filling in the letters....

Like I said above, I did go back & re-paint the frame of the tray after all was said and done. I wasn't sure where I was gonna display my chalk art when I was first starting this project. However, when I decided to hang it on my cream wall in the living room, I knew the cream frame wasn't going to work.  So, I grabbed some blue paint that I had in the garage & my small paintbrush and got to work re-painting the outer rim of the tray. The blue just looks so much better against my cream colored walls! Don't you think?!

Well, what do you think?! Do you like my little chalkboard?

Have you made any chalk art this year?! 

Have you made any dollar store crafts this Christmas?!


Tomorrow we will be wrapping this series up with a linky party!! That's right...we want YOU to join in the fun!! So, make sure you come back & visit tomorrow and have those decorating ideas ready to link up! If you link up with just one of us, your post will be seen on all 8 blogs! Woo Hoo! It's gonna be FUN!

Wanna start from the beginning and see all of the Dollar Store decorating ideas from this series?! Be sure to check out my friend, Lisa's post from Monday!  Grab a cup of coffee & enjoy clicking through all the links!

Don't Miss Out - DIY projects, home decorating, crafts & more by checking out my subscribe page