This Chalkboard Plaque Makes a Great Photo Gift

This past Mother’s Day, I wanted to give my mother, my mother-in-law, and my step mother-in-law something personal. My daughters came up with a photo gift idea – a chalkboard plaque.

 

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

 How to Make a Chalkboard Plaque

First we went to our local Michaels store and chose a smooth board with a nice edging.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

We sanded the wood a little bit although it didn’t need much.  Then we stained it.  We used Rust-Oleum Golden Oak Wood Stain.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

After the stain was completely dry, we used a finishing spray, a gloss sealant.  We chose Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch.  The Watco Lacquer Finishing Spray is also a great choice.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

We found cute little chalkboards to glue onto the wooden plaque.  Our chalkboards measured approximately 5″ X 7.” If you are attempting this project, be sure to use an adhesive that adheres to all materials or choose a chalkboard with ribbon holes at the top.  We removed the ribbons from ours and used the ribbon holes to nail the chalkboards to the wood for extra stability.  We spotted little wooden “Family” embellishments to add to our photo gift idea.  The ones we chose were also made of wood and already painted white, but you can choose individual letters and paint them any desired color.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

We needed a way to display photos on our photo gift board, so we choose small metal paper clips.  We chose clips with holes so we could nail them onto the board for added durability.  We felt that glue alone would not hold the clips to the board after repeatedly opening and closing them to switch out photos over time.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

We were almost done but we needed to add a few final touches.  We wanted to attach a small metal bucket to the bottom of the plaque to store chalk.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

We decided that our honored mothers and grandmothers needed a way to hang their plaques so we added hanging brackets to the back.

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

 

Now all we needed to do was add photos.  Our project was finished!

Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

We were finishing these up the night before Mother’s Day so we didn’t have time to order quality photographs.  I printed a few pictures using regular copy paper but if you are strapped for time like we were, you can print pictures from your own printer using photo paper.

Our projects turned out great!  We made three of these and each mother and grandmother loved them.  We made these for Mother’s Day but they would also make great DIY gifts for birthdays or “just because.”

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