Chalkboard update and fancy chalk

I nabbed this cute little chalkboard at a yard sale this summer for only a dollar. The price was right, but a makeover was definitely in order. Here's a photo of the before (well, it's partway through its makeover, I got excited and forgot to take a true 'before' photo, but you get the idea).

The natural wood look wasn't doing it for me – a little too folk artsy.  At one point in its life, I bet that little knob at the top had a pair of wooden folk art hearts hanging from it by a piece of twine... I knew right away that it needed an update.

Here is the finished product after I painted it white, repainted the chalkboard area and scuffed it up the frame a bit to give it an aged/distressed feel.

I had these little clips just sitting in my 'office stuff' box, so I decided to use one on the board to give it a bit more functionality.

Here is the finished product. The clip is attached to the little knob on the board with a scrap piece of fabric and I added a coordinating decorative brad to the clip just to make it extra cute! The final piece has kind of a vintage country look to it, much better than the original folk art look.

Right now I am using it as a birthday calendar and I can clip coupons to it that I will use when gift shopping.

A new chalkboard deserves a good box of chalk, right? I had my eye on the 4-pack of nicely sharpened chalk from Martha Stewart's office supply line at Staples. But I couldn't bring myself to pay $4 for 4 pieces of chalk! (Sorry Martha.) I opted for the 12-pack of Crayola chalk instead – it was only 95 cents. 

I thought to myself, if Martha can sharpen chalk, surely I must be able to as well. So I tried it out when I got home and it worked out perfectly! Who knew? I'm so pleased with my lovely sharpened chalk that I got for a fraction of the price.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my new chalkboard and fancy sharpened chalk!

Linking up with:
{aka} design
organize & decorate everything
beyond the picket fence

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