Chalkboard Paint

I saw these wooden plaques at Cleverpatch and liked them. So I bought them. I thought they would be great to use as boards for the boys to practice their writing and maths on but first I needed to paint them with chalkboard paint.I only needed a small amount of chalkboard paint and the smallest chalkboard paint I could find at Bunnings was still a little pricey, so I went home to google it and see if I could make it myself.And guess what. I did and it was so easy!

We had all the supplies needed so it didn’t cost me a cent which was great!

I used:

plaster of paris
water
acrylic paint
paddlepop sticks for stirring

The boys chose their own colours: Purple for R and Blue for B: Their favourite colours.
I chose black for me. A bit boring, but I like it.

We used a measuring cup that you get with the medicines like panadol and cough mixtures to measure our ingredients.

We used 3 parts plaster of paris and mixed it with 1 to 1 ½ parts of water. We mixed it until it was smooth but not too runny. Then we added 2 parts of acrylic paint of our chosen colour. Mix the colour through well and test first to see if you are comfortable with the consistency. You can add more of the ingredients until you are happy.

We painted the plaques and left them to dry. In total, we did 4 coats of paint and then left them to dry completely overnight. Make sure you cover your chalkboard paint while you are waiting for the coats of paint to dry.

You then need to ‘season’ your chalkboard before using it. To do this, lightly rub the long side of the chalk over the chalkboard and using a chalkboard duster rub it off. Then they are ready to be used.

We have had a great deal of fun with these so far and will use them in our homeschooling when we start back up again after the holidays.

 

This post is featured at Aussie Homeschool Blog