Faux Chalkboard

It's no surprise that I love creating designs and messages with my chalkboard. And since Rian was born I've managed to find different opportunities to use it. But sometimes I just don't have time to create the "masterpiece" that I have in my mind. And although I absolutely love making my chalkboards and prefer a hand drawn creation over a faux any day, here is how I create a fake design or message in just minutes. I've created a couple different ways to do this, but I use only two items: a chalkboard and a writing/doodling app. Ok don't get all crazy if you don't have a chalkboard, I've got you covered. So here we go...

If you have a chalkboard, simply take a photo of it. I've done this two different ways for two different types of creations.

One with the kids sitting next to the chalkboard

And one of a close tight shot of the chalkboard with a little added white chalk lightly rubbed off for an added effect.

Now if you don't have a chalkboard or don't have any sort of program, like photoshop, to create a chalkboard background feel free to save this jpeg file to create your own.

Once you have your blank chalkboard pic, you're gonna have to download an app designed to write on photos, if you don't already have one. I currently use A Beautiful Mess. It costs a few bucks, but it's worth it. I've also used Over in the past and it works great and it's free!

Upload your chalkboard pic to your writing app and use any font you'd like, just keep the color option white. I know white is not a color. Just make sure that if you're trying to create a design on a photo that has the chalkboard frame in the pic, you stay within the chalkboard frame. Otherwise, it'll be a dead give away that it's a fake. 

Same pics, now after using the writing app

I drew the ones below by hand, and as you can see using the faux method you still get the same effect. 

I could've used the faux method on this one. I totally forgot that it was the first day of school and did it in a matter of minutes. And you can sadly tell. 

Same chalkboard pic as above was used in both of these creations. 

I decided to use a little color in the one below because it was used as a birthday card for a four year old.

I created all of the faux boards using A Beautiful Mess which has all of these fonts and doodles (and many more) available. The app is much like Instagram in that it's crops the photo to a square. 

If you're looking for a little chalkboard inspiration, check out Jessica Garvin's blog, Little Baby Garvin. She's amazing and she does all of her's by hand. So if you've ever wanted to create your very own unique chalkboard design, get to it! I don't think it can get any easier than this!!!

Have fun creating

-aMie