Giant Chalkboard {31 Days: Day 6}

I finally did something this weekend that I've been wanting to do for a long time - make a GIANT chalkboard and try my hand at chalkboard lettering.

I'd call it a semi-success. :) You'll see why in a sec.

To make the chalkboard, I used materials I had on hand (continuing one of my 31 days themes - USING what I have), which included a big piece of hardboard leftover from my upholstered headboard project and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I've used on several projects in the past. I had heard you could use it as chalkboard paint, so I thought, why not try it?

So I painted the piece of hardboard with Chalk Paint and "primed it" with chalk (i.e. rubbed chalk all over it and wiped it off with a soft cloth).

Then I mocked up a quote I wanted to hand-letter in Illustrator. It's a Helen Keller quote that says, "life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." I spotted that quote written on a restaurant window last week and it really stuck with me, so I thought I'd try writing it on my new giant chalkboard.

Looks lovely in Illustrator, right? Well, I tried to copy it by hand, sketching lightly at first...

...and after a few tries and lots of erasing, I ended up here by the end:

Certainly not perfect, but I'd say it was a pretty good first attempt at something like this! Looks like I'll need some more practice before I can call myself the next Dana Tanamachi, but we've all got to start somewhere, right?

Oh, and because you can't tell how big this thing is, I thought I'd stick it up on my TV stand in the living room so you can see how HUGE it is:

It's as tall as my built-in bookshelves! 

Have any of you tried your hand at chalkboard lettering? It's kind of fun to play around with, and the best part is you can always erase and start over!

Hope y'all have had good weekends. I'll be back tomorrow with my first ever HOME TOUR, so you can see how I'm attempting to stay on track with the other part of my 31 Days series: loving what I have - even the less-than-ideal parts.

Read the series from the beginning...

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base, Naptime Creations, Southern Hospitality, Remodelaholic, Just a Girl and Her Blog

iPhone Wallpaper Freebies & Reader Survey

First of all, announcement time! In just two short weeks, May Richer Fuller Be will be turning 1! I can't believe I've been at this thing for a year now. It's been so fun, and I love, love, love writing this little blog. One of my favorite parts is hearing from and responding to readers (y'all!) and connecting with other bloggers. Since I do most of the talking around here, I feel like it's high time to hear a little something from Y-O-U. I've put together a short 10 question survey and I would be so grateful if you would take a couple of minutes to fill out. I want to know a little bit about you, why you read (even if this is your first time here), what you love, and what I can do better. Pretty please? I'll share some of the results on the blog soon. Thank you, thank you for reading. Y'all are a big reason why I've kept at it for these last 365 days! You're the best.

Now, since I've just professed my love for you, my dear readers, what better way to celebrate that declaration than giving you a gift? Since I've been playing around with chalkboards and fonts this week (on this post and this one), I decided to create some fun chalkboard freebies for you...well actually, for your phone :). They're wallpapers for your iPhones. I've designed them specifically for your lock screens so that when you turn on your phone, you'll greeted by a little happy :).

How about a "hello" from your phone?

Or a little reminder that a new season has arrived (with a southern flair)?

And lastly, I think it could be pretty handy to have an at-a-glance monthly calendar on your lock screen. In fact, this is the one I decided to put on my phone's screen.

These are pretty fun, huh? If you're looking for something new to greet you when you turn on that little screen a million times a day, one of these might just be the ticket.

So how do you get one? Well, first you have to download the image for the wallpaper you want to use to your phone. I've designed two versions of each wallpaper - one for the iPhone 4 and one for the 5 since the screen sizes are different. Click the appropriate link below for the wallpaper of your choice and phone version that you have:

// Hello // 

iPhone 4 | iPhone 5

// It's fall y'all // 

iPhone 4 | iPhone 5

// September calendar //

iPhone 4 | iPhone 5

You'll want to open your link on your phone so you can download the image directly to it. Once you download it, you'll want to open the image on your camera roll, set it as wallpaper and chose the set lock screen option. I'd imagine most of you know how to do that, but just in case I thought I'd do a quick screenshot tutorial using my phone as an example...

1. Click the link above to the wallpaper you want to download and it will open in an application called Dropbox. Click that little blue button in the top, right corner with the arrow...

2. Clicking the blue button opens a menu. Choose "direct download." The wallpaper will open in a larger format on the screen.

3. Hold your finger down anywhere on the photo and this menu will pop up. Click save image. The image will now be in your camera roll.

4. Open the photo in your camera roll and click the small arrow button in the bottom left corner.

5. This menu will open. Click "use as wallpaper" and follow the prompts to "set lock screen."

You're done! Next time you unlock your phone, you'll see this loveliness on the screen:

Now that wasn't so bad was it?

I hope y'all will enjoy these little freebies. I'm thinking I might make a new calendar each month (since we're more than halfway through September already!), since that's the one I've settled on using. What do you think? Is that something any of y'all would enjoy having?

Thanks, as always, for reading. Don't forget to fill out the reader survey! (THANK YOU!)

13 Awesome & Free Chalkboard Fonts

Goooood morning! I hope y'all enjoyed yesterday's post on the chalkboard art I made for CHAT. It really is an awesome organization. If you have no idea what I'm talking about or missed yesterday's post, I encourage you to take a minute to read it and see what this ministry is all about. Also, tomorrow morning marks the start of a fundraising campaign called The Amazing Raise, which is a 36-hour online giving contest where non-profit organizations in the city of Richmond, Virginia compete for the greatest number of unique $50 donations. The top three winners will receive "bonuses" on top of the money they raised from individual donors. If yesterday's post struck a chord in you, would you consider donating to this fantastic cause? The contest starts tomorrow (Wednesday, September 18th) at 6am and goes through Thursday (September 19th) at 6pm. Head to The Amazing Raise site to donate.

Onward! Yesterday I mentioned that I downloaded a bunch of "chalkboard-worthy" fonts to play around with when putting together the art for CHAT. I found so many good ones that I thought I'd share 13 of my favorites with y'all. You can pin this little graphic below to keep as a reference for later if you'd like :).

These are all free typefaces, but I always check to see if they're free for personal or commercial use. If it's free for personal use, you can't put it on anything you're going to sell, but if it's free for commercial use, go to town! Use it on whatever you want! Here are the links to the fonts above:

Archistico | ChunkFive Roman | FFF Tusj | GrutchShaded | Hominis | Kraft Nine (free for personal use) | Lane Posh | Lobster Two | NeoRetroDraw | NotMaryKate | Return To Sender (free for personal use) | Road Movie (free for personal use) | Scribble Box Demo (free for personal use)

A couple of general tips on downloading typefaces:

• If you're planning on using a lot of fonts for commercial use (say you have a stationery business, Etsy shop, etc.), a great site to download them from is Font Squirrel. ALL of these are free for commercial use. HOOray.
• For instructions on how to install fonts onto your computer, scroll to the bottom of this post for a tutorial.

Have fun with these! I know I have :). In fact, I'm putting together a few little chalkboard-esque freebies for you tomorrow using a few of them along with some others. Do you have an iPhone? If so, come on back to grab a free download for it!

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base