Candace Creations: kitchen decor

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Chalkboard Bakery Sign on Canvas

Faux Chalkboard Bakery Sign on Canvas

I originally saw this cool bakery sign wall decor on a blog header over at Junkin Junky about a year ago, and she has since changed the image on her blog header so I can't really show you. A couple months later I was looking for it (this was before pinterest) and found the bakery sign over at the Curious Sofa, although it's not there anymore either, but luckily I saved it because I FINALLY did it!

Here is the original from curious sofa

I started with a 12x24 inch gallery wrapped canvas that I got on sale really cheap years ago...before I even became a mom, which was at least 5 years ago as JJ's bday comes up next week! I didn't have any black acrylic paint, so I used J's Black Tempura/Poster Paint but due to my painting classes from college, I still have a difficult time using any paint straight from the tube...even black, so I mixed the black with some of my burnt umber...don't know if it made any difference, but oh well...I painted the entire canvas black.

Then I put a piece of chalk in a bag and smashed it with a hammer. I used a wide dry paint brush and brushed the chalk powder onto the black canvas to make it look like a chalkboard. Who needs chalkboard paint when you can use black poster paint and basic crayola chalk to make a faux chalkboard finish?

I inverted the original image from curious sofa and enlarged it to the size I wanted in word and had it print onto several pages. Then did the ol scribble chalk on the back and trace the letters onto the canvas. I did try practicing my freehand at first which wasn't terrible, but I just wanted it to be uniform and even and so I traced the lettering on.

When I started, I planned to paint the letters with white paint, but right before starting thought...um since I'm making it look like a chalkboard...why don't I just use chalk? duh...

To keep the chalk for smudging and wiping off, I took it out to the garage and sprayed it with fixative. You can find that in the drawing section a store that carries art supplies.

I made this chalkboard bakery sign to go next to the door to the deck because there are two empty areas of wall, on the opposite wall, I just threw up this pizza paddle we already had.