Hey friends!  Please help welcome our final guest blogger friend, Jen Woodhouse!  She has brought you a really fun project today!

It’s no secret that the Shanty Sisters inspire my socks off. I’ve completed several of their amazing projects, including their outdoor box planters, knockoff Restoration Hardware nightstands, and rustic planter box centerpiece. So when they asked me to guest post on their blog, I almost peed my pants in excitement (btw, for those of you keeping score, we’re now down a pair of socks and pants… this could get awkward).

I spied these cute chalkboard tablets at Anthropologie, but sadly, they’re no longer available. Womp womp.

Screen Shot 2013-05-05 at 6.47.58 PM

And even if they were, and even if I could bring myself to spend 58 bucks on one (what the duck!), the only natural and acceptable response for a DIYer is to look at something and say, “hey, I can make that!” Amiright? And if your pile of scrap wood is overtaking your garage, like mine is, then I see it as a win-win. So what do you do with a bunch of scrap wood and some leftover chalkboard paint? Make some cute Anthropologie-inspired chalkboard tablets, of course. Duh. Try to keep up.

There’s really no need for a full-on tutorial because you’re all smart cookies, so here’s the fast and loose version:

1) Find scrap wood, cut it down to whatever size you want, and sand any rough edges:

scrapwood

2) Stain the back of each board with whatever stain you can dig out of the cabinet:

staining

stained

3) Forget to drill a hole into each board. Drill the hole, then sand down the rough edge, then re-stain the part you had to sand down. Slap yourself.

staindrying

4) After the stain is dry, tape off the edges with some painter’s tape, flip the boards over then paint the fronts with a couple light coats of chalkboard paint:

chalkboardpaint

5) Grab a brownie (a corner piece… or three) and stuff your face until the chalkboard paint dries. Once it’s dry, peel the painter’s tape off. Then rummage through your craft drawer and find some leftover leather/suede/somethingorother strips from when you thought friendship bracelets were hip. Slap yourself again.

brownie_suede

leather

 

6) Cut some strips from the leather/suede/somethingorother for the handy-dandy pencil holder, then attach it to the board with some finish nails. Slide your chalk pencil into its holder and voila! Chalkboard tablets!

Wood Chalkboard Tablet

Chalkboard Tablets DIY

And because I had a lot of small pieces of scrap wood laying around, as well as some aqua-colored chalkboard paint, I went a little tablet-happy:

DIY Chalkboard Tablets

But look, wouldn’t these make the cutest little party favors? You’d be the coolest person ever to send your guests home with these cutie patooties, right?

Well, my time is up here. I hope the Shanty Sisters had exactly one ton of fun out on the road while we held down the fort in their absence. Thank you Whitney and Ashley, for allowing me to share my little Anthropologie-knockoff chalkboard tablets with your readers. And thank you for inspiring us all!

Btw, I have a blog, too (I mean, who doesn’t?) and if you want to pop on over and say hello, that would be spectacular. We can be friends. It’ll be fun.

 

 

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15 Comments

  1. These are great!! We use them to personalize our guestroom doors, I lay them out on the buffet tables for PWOC so we can identify what kind of casserole scrumptious casserole we are eating, and I now have some for my girlfriends children when they visit. Thanks for the posting.

    1. All awesome (and utilitarian) ideas, Isabella! I bet your buffet tables are super cute!

  2. I must make these! I can totally appreciate that your grocery list has an exclamation point after bacon! That is usually how bacon appears on my lists:)

  3. Ah ha, so you are not only crafty with your hands, but words, too! Thanks, I needed that! Cute tablet 🙂

    1. I googled “chalk pencils” and found some sold on Amazon and eBay… I think I got mine from eBay. 🙂

    1. You can put some string through it and hang it up! I use mine to hang on the door when the babies are napping, so the delivery guys will knock, instead of ringing my doorbell!