I shared this project last year over on Just Us Four and since it is that time of year when we all want to get more organized, I thought I would give you all the directions on how I made it!
When I wrote the post it was fairly early on in my first year of blogging and staying organized with posts and ideas was a huge goal (still is)! I’m also slightly obsessed with my stats. So I decided to make a chalkboard for my craft space that would help me keep track of all those things and be a huge, physical reminder to keep up with my daily blog goals. My stats have greatly improve since I took the picture above!
The biggest obstacle in having a large chalkboard was the wall on which I wanted to put it. We currently live in a rental with old plaster walls that fall apart if you try to put nails or hooks into them. We also do not want to repaint when we leave. This meant I couldn’t paint the chalkboard directly on the wall and I couldn’t hang anything heavier than a command hook could hold. My solution? Foamcore!
I was introduced to this clear chalkboard coating
by the ladies at Lolly Jane. As the bottle states, “It transforms everyday surfaces into a chalkboard.” I figured, why not try it on a piece of colored foamcore. The coating takes two coats…one horizontal…one vertical, with an hour to dry in between. I used a small foam roller to apply the coating to keep the surface from having brush strokes. After letting it sit for 24 hours, I “conditioned” the foamcore by lightly rubbing a piece of white chalk over the entire piece. The bonus to using green foamcore was that now it looks like an old school chalkboard or scoreboard!
The next step for my chalkboard project was to divide it up into the sections to keep all my thoughts organized. I used my stash of Washi tape
to add a border to the foamcore and then to mark off all the grids. I printed out labels for each section using a full size clear label I have from Avery but you can use any labeling tool you have. The social icons are the ones I used on my old blog design.
The brain dump section is my favorite since it helps me empty my brain every time an idea pops in!
The idea is to update my number of followers for all the social sites and pageviews at the beginning of each week. This way I know where to add a little extra effort if the numbers haven’t changed much.
To hang my new chalkboard, I decided to use a piece of burlap I had on hand. I hot glued the burlap so it wouldn’t have any frayed edges and then hot glued it to the back of the foamcore. And yes, I did Washi tape the hook!! You can find the tutorial for the chalk holder here!
I am very happy with the way this project came out, especially the unexpected bonus of having a bit of a retro feel to it with the way the green chalkboard looks. It is lightweight enough that I won’t ruin my walls and I can also pop it off the wall to write on it when I need to!
What organizing tools do you use to plan out your blog posts? Are you trying something new this year?
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