Fun With Chalk

Hi all!  When I first found the Chalkboard paper from DCWV at Michaels, I was intrigued.  I was always interested in markers and inks that show up on dark paper. I bought the DCWV chalkboard cardstock but once I had it, I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to use it.  I had come across various forms of "chalk" and I started to research them.  I purchased regular chalkboard chalk, Chalkmarkers and even a package of Crayola's Dry eraseboard crayons for dark surfaces.

I let my granddaughters try the regular chalk, but that proved to wipe off almost immediately.  Kayla made a birthday card for my son and worried the images would be gone before she got the chance to give it to him.  I didn't have any fixative sprays (my Mom, the artist, uses this often on her art work), so I sprayed it with hair spray.  That seemed to keep the artwork on the chalk board paper without smearing.  I knew that I did not want to do this every time I wanted to use chalks, I had to spray it with hairspray!

My next experiment was using the dry erase crayons from Crayola.  I liked these immediately, as the colors were bright and strong.  They went on smoothly onto the paper.  I am not much of a free hand artist, so I found a design in my Cricut handbooks (Storybook) and cut it at the largest size that would fit a 12 x 12 sheet.  I set the blade at 3, so that it would only score the top of the paper, not cutting all the way through.  More like etching the paper.  Its pretty cool because this paper does have a white core.   Then I took the crayons and drew along the etched lines.    Now, these crayons do rub off, not as easily as the regular chalk, but will come off with more vigorous rubbing.  After outlining the cut lines, I took a soft cloth and used it as a blender, softening the color and rubbing it into the paper.    Once blended into the paper, it didn't seem like it would rub off.  This has been in a bin for awhile with other papers and it did not rub off onto the other papers.  I was very happy with the results.

Here is another example of using the Crayons on the chalkboard paper. This was a more floral design I cut with the Cricut.   I didn't color the center of the design, as I will most likely cover it with photos.

This next one, I etched another design onto the brighter colored chalk board paper.  I did use a little white chalk, just to rub into the etching so the design stands out more.  The first photo is a close up, and the second one is of the full sheet.  Nice for a subtle design in the background.

This is a layout I did with the Chalkboard paper.  I did a design in the corners of the paper.  I used a silver gel pen.  It looks great on the black chalkboard paper.

This last one I cut out a design using the Cricut, and used the silver pen to draw a line following the shape of the design (its not an outline, so would it be called an "inline"???)

I really like this paper and hope to use more of it in cards and layouts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy