One of the items I showed recently as part of a rustic graduation celebration was a chalkboard sandwich board. I had been on the lookout for large matching frames to create sandwich board signs for this graduation party. I had found two at Goodwill on a Friday but I didn't buy them because it was 50% off day the next day...and they were gone by the time I got there...right after they opened.
So the hunt continued. Fortunately, I came across four matching frames at a church rummage sale. There were four total. They had red velvet glued to the wood. Something (not sure what!) had been displayed in these frames. I bought them for $3 each. They were exactly what I was looking for. Tall, skinny and they matched. I would have settled for two, but was fortunate to find four. I scooped them all up!
Part of the fabric had already ripped off of the backing. I thought it would be easy to remove and paint over with chalkboard paint. Wrong. Dead wrong. It was stuck on there really well. There were bits of red velvet remaining all over the board. I tried to use the back side, but the plywood was very knotty and really rough. I didn't like it for my chalk board paint.
I ran to my local big box hardware store and picked up some sheets of masonite. I cut them to size, painted the masonite with black chalkboard paint. I used a pale yellow chalk paint on the frames. Yellow was the graduate's favorite color so yellow had to be the choice.
I distressed the yellow paint slightly and nailed the masonite into the frames.
I used a 10 inch hinge to attach the top of the frame to one another. I used eyelet hooks to attach a chain (on both sides) to keep the board from extending too far apart.
For a finishing touch, I added a skeleton key. Again, another favorite of the honored grad. A lot of what I do is self taught and a lot of trial and error. This one took a little longer than I thought with having to cut new pieces of masonite. The 10 inch hinge was also a bear to attach.
We used one as a welcome in the driveway and one as a directional sign at the corner of the block. They turned out well.
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