It all started with our first visit to the massage specialists. Longevity Massage, here in Knoxville, is an intimate facility with an unhurried pace. They have mastered the most serene environment, complete with private steam showers, cozy relaxation rooms and complimentary wine service. Wine? Massage? Steam Shower? It’s like going on a two-hour vacation! My frugal spending habits don’t really lend to spending hours at the spa on a regular basis, but after one visit, we decided it was time to bring the spa home… DIY style of course! And believe it or not, it was an affordable luxury!

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What exactly is a steam shower? Besides being the best shower experience ever, a steam shower heats water until it vaporizes and then pumps that invigorating steam into an enclosed area, your shower. While it seems like a simple idea, there is a science to getting the right amount of steam per square inch of your space. Choosing the right size steam generator, the right materials, construction, and ventilation are important to building the best steam shower. Steam showers offer dozens of benefits. Besides the amazing relaxation it provides, steam showers offer many physical and mental health benefits. Disclaimer: Since we are just makers, not doctors or therapists, we recommend talking with your doctor before using a steam shower!

The Health Benefits of a Steam Shower

1. Improved Circulation

The increase in temperature increases blood flow to all parts of the body. Which leads us to our next point…

2. Recovery, Stiffness, Joint Pain

An increase in blood flow will also relieve joint pain and sore muscles. Steam showers help flush out all that metabolic junk that leaves you with soreness and fatigue. You literally sweat it out!

3. Skin Care

Steam is good for your skin because it can act as a moisturizer. The combination of warm air and moisture opens clogged pores so they can absorb oxygen, vitamins, and valuable minerals. And if you’ve read my previous post of my winter skin lotion recipe, then you know that sensitive skin runs in this family. I can tell you that using the steam shower has helped with our dry sensitive skin and is the most gentle way I’ve found that works!

4. Fighting off Colds

…And allergies! Steam eases sinus congestion and irritation. Simply standing in a steam shower and taking in a breath full of warm air will decongest your chest and ease your respiratory system. Add a little peppermint or eucalyptus oil to the shower and you are breathing easy!

5. Metabolism and Weight Loss

While it’s not exactly a fitness plan, it can be another way to help you burn calories and lose weight. When the steam increases your pulse rate, your cardiovascular system is stimulated leading to increased metabolism. It’s kinda like a mini workout in the shower!

6. Stress Management

Physical benefits mean a positive mental well-being, too! When your muscles relax, your mind and body relax as well. All this reduced tension equals better sleep, which equals a happy mama!! :D

These are only a few of the benefits we’ve experienced with our steam shower. See, it’s much more than just a luxury amenity! So let’s get on with the demo and install to show you how you the process of the remodel!

Planning for the Ultimate Shower

As with any home project, we had several weeks of planning to determine materials needed and costs required to build. After reaching out to the massage spa, they recommended Mr. Steam as that is who they use for their steam showers. Mr. Steam has a ton of helpful information on their side including a downloadable guide for planning your home steam shower and a virtual spa tool to help you plan for your space. Maybe you are just curious about steam showers and want to know more. Get everything you need to know on their blog!

Our plan…

Measuring the space

A steam shower can be installed in just about any size space. We decided to bring the shower out just a few inches to make the space a bit larger. Measuring your space helps you choose the right size steam generator and the right amount of materials needed to build the enclosure.

Choosing our tile

We found an amazing wood-look tile on sale at Floor & Decor. Larger tiles are better for steam since they collect less condensation. We picked up all the supplies we needed, and borrowed tools from friends and family to help with costs.

Laying out the shower

Since steam showers should have no heating, venting or air-conditioning components inside the steam room, this meant even the light fixtures had to be vapor sealed. We ordered these light fixtures and had Clinton Glass in Knoxville install our glass enclosure. They do amazing work! Check out the video at the end of this post! Aside from the lights and the glass enclosure, we also laid out the design for a bench and fixtures.

#DemoDay

This was our bathroom before the shower remodel. In our efforts of dressing up the room a bit with the rustic ladder storage , I still couldn’t see past the old tub and that green tile. The original tub that was in the house when we moved in had been painted over. The tub was impossible to get white again. WARNING: the following photos may contain images of grime and disgust!

See the spots of blue paint there in the bottom? And I promise, this tub had just been scrubbed with every cleaner you could suggest. That grime was invincible and there to stay. Needless to say, I never took a bath in this tub. It was a shower only kinda bathroom. Which is why it made perfect sense to do away with the tub all together!

Take one last good look! This is the last you will see of that shower and tub!

Just to add some fun to the project, I brought in a sharpie and “X” marks the spot! We were ready for demo!

The good thing about doing your own renovations, is it is a prime time for family bonding! :D Our girl  could not wait to get at this tile so we were happy to have her help! Safety first!!

Once all the tile was gone, we took it all the way down to the studs.

The tub might have been the hardest demo!

It’s not every day you have a toilet in your bedroom. Part of the “fun” of remodels is living with your home in complete disarray until the project is finished. While Britt is hardly bothered by this from his years in construction, my OCD tendencies could not wait to get in that new steam shower to release all the tension of having to walk around a potty and a pile of tools to get to bed every night. :D It is what it is, and the pay off is worth every bit of it!

We built out the frame for the enclosure. This took a lot of thought and planning. :)

And finally, we had what was starting to look like a shower again. We wanted the two insets for all the shampoo and conditioner bottles we seem to collect in the shower. Tell me we are not alone in this!!

And then it came time for tile. We had a full workshop set up on our deck to cut the tile.

Overall, this project took a few weeks to complete as we were doing it ourselves in between working our regular jobs.

Fixtures are almost in… I call this the “best seat in the house!” We chose to do two shower heads; one overhead, and another on the side. The main control is a divert so we can turn one or both on at the same time.

Notice, we have a shower curtain up. We had to wait on the glass enclosure to be made and installed, so no steam yet. The steam controller is right above the faucet fixture. At this point, the shower is all done, just needs the glass enclosure. We installed the lighting on a dimmer switch, and of course the bottom of the shower is slightly sloped for drainage.

Check out our hyperlapse video of the glass install. You’ll also get a full picture of the bathroom makeover. Along with the shower, we ripped up the green marble tile floor and installed new tile flooring. For the overhead face board of the shower, we installed a stained piece of barnwood for the modern rustic style we love.

Overall costs for the shower was right around $6000.00. That includes the steam shower generator from Mr. Steam and the entire rip-out and rebuild of the shower. The costs depends on the size of the enclosure you want to use, materials, and the bargains you can find. We were fortunate to find tile we loved on clearance.

The maintenance for the steam shower is minimal. We flush out the generator about once a month and of course give the shower a good cleaning.

Is it worth it? Even without a steam shower, this remodel turned out beautiful and was worth every penny! Add in the relaxation of a steam shower experience and it’s priceless! I can tell you that we use the steam shower every night, even in the summer, and the benefits far outweigh the costs of this project. Comment below if you have questions, and we will do our best to answer! In the meantime, check out more information on steam showers over at Mr. Steam!

Thank you Clinton Glass for your exceptional work!!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own. 

My daughter loves fairy gardens and crafts. She comes by it honestly. What’s not to love about tiny magical fairies that dance under the light of fireflies? For her 6th birthday party, we opened our home to eight little dancing fairies, and a lot of pixie dust (a.k.a. glitter). To foster her love of crafts, we added in a fun activity that gave every one a gift to take home.

Other parents have told me I’m brave (or maybe a little crazy) for throwing a birthday party for kindergartners in my home. It does take quite a bit of preparation, but for the six wonderful years I’ve hosted a themed party for my daughter, she has always wanted it at home. I believe it fosters wonderful memories. It also saves money, and turns out all the kids love “house parties!” So to not break tradition, we turned our 2,100 square foot split foyer home into a magical fairy land,  and for one day everything was possible.

Most of the fairy garden items came from Michael’s craft store and Joann’s. They both have an amazing selection of fairy garden items at great prices. In case you’re not close to either of these craft stores, I did find some of the cutest and unique accessories on Amazon that I’d love to add to our collection!

Using a moss mat, we brought these little gardens to life, and created miniature stepping stones out of modeling clay. Add in a few faux flowers and these little fairy scenes are the perfect little surprise around every corner and on every table.

Every little guest got her own set of fairy wings  and a wand for the party and as a take home gift. The Dollar Tree is the best place if you want to save a little money. You can even find a selection of fairy garden accessories to use in your displays!

I did a little hand-lettered project for the party using these amazing Versa Chalk Markers. They wipe right off like dry erase! Best thing since sliced bread if you are a chalkboard fanatic like me! And yes, that’s a laser level I borrowed from Britt’s toolbox to help keep my lines straight. (Second best thing since sliced bread!)

I also saved a little bit of money and used a little more creativity by making this happy birthday banner with my new embossing gun, embossing pens, and embossing powder. This stuff is like magic to see it come to life, and it added some great shimmer to the party.

I have a real addiction to hand-lettering as it’s become my new favorite form of therapy. We created this little nook which would be her candy and dessert table. I hand-lettered a sweet quote that fit perfectly for the occasion using a white charcoal pencil and chalk.

For her cake, Bree requested an ice cream cookie cake. I never realized this was a thing, but turns out there’s a fantastic recipe that I used and everyone loved it! In fact, Britt requested it for his birthday too! I used Breyer’s ice cream for this one, and it ended up melting FASTER than I could serve the cake. I’d recommend not using a homemade style ice cream. You definitely want one that’s not quick to melt for this.

At the end of the day, eight little fairies had an enchanted time and a little girl opened the next chapter on another magical year. The fairy birthday party isn’t just for kids. We all have a little magic within us if we only just believe in it.

I hope you find some inspiration here for your own birthday party ideas or maybe just from the little quotes we shared. Life is too short to be small, but these little fairies taught us to live big – even if for just one day! Never stop dreaming, friends and live BIG every day!!

Today we were DIY Electricians. And we survived to tell the story. We replaced a not so favorite pendant light over the kitchen sink with an affordable and stylish aged copper light. We did it in 6 easy steps, and it actually lights up!

Since we don’t condone this sort of reckless behavior, we will put a disclaimer here.  Unless you are confident in your DIY abilities and have a fire extinguisher within arms reach, we recommend using a licensed electrician for all of your electrical home improvement projects.  This is merely a story of how we became renovation rebels in a matter of hours. Do not try this at home.

Here’s the 6 easy steps and a whole lotta pictures we took to hang an awesome pendant light like a BOSS.

1. Remove the Old Lighting

First of all, turn off the power! The most important part of this whole adventure is turning off the power at the breaker box for the light you are replacing. Do this first every time.

We removed the canopy of the old light, unscrewed the wire nuts by turning them counterclockwise, and separated the wires so nothing got crossed up. A few loose screws is one thing, but getting your wires crossed can cause some major issues.

Once we removed the old light fixture, we were left with what you see here. A shallow electrical junction box and three wires. This shallow box poses a small challenge for us later on, but nothing that these DIY rebels can’t handle. For now we’ve put the wire nuts back on the end of the exposed black and white wires. Safety first!!

2. Cut the Cord

Now it’s time to cut the cord to length for the new light. I love this new pendant light comes with a plug end, but since we were installing this in the kitchen, we had to convert it a hard-wired pendant light. We decided on the length we wanted to light to hang, and added about 6 inches to it. This way we had enough slack for connecting the wires.

This pendant light has a unique cloth-covered twisted cord. We used the wire cutters/strippers to cut through the wire and strip back the ends about a 1/2 inch to uncover the bare wire.

Note there is a white wire and a black wire. Good rule of thumb… always match the black wires to each other and the white wires to each other when installing your lighting.

The pendant light came with a canopy kit to use for hard-wiring our light. The canopy kit includes everything you see here. We are going to remove the silver crossbar mounting bracket across the middle.

We will install that same mounting bracket in our electrical box in the ceiling. Our electrical box already had this bracket from the old light, but we are replacing it to insure it fits with this canopy cover.

3. Thread the Canopy

Once we cut the wires on our pendant cord, it’s time to thread it through the canopy components. Thread the wire through this long screw (called the nipple) which will go in the middle of the silver crossbar bracket we will install in the ceiling.

The canopy kit consists of the canopy cover, the silver cross bar mounting bracket, the nipple, two lock nuts, and a grommet with the set screw. We are going to thread our new pendant light cord through the canopy as shown here.

Since the wires are covered in cloth, we used some electrical tape around the ends of the exposed wires to keep the frayed ends neat and stop any further fraying. Now we are ready to install!

4. Connecting all The Wires

We’re going to thread the nipple of the canopy kit through the crossbar in the junction box. We’re going to bend all the wires down so we can work with them and get them all connected. Let’s separate the wires and pull them in opposite directions so nothing gets crossed up.

First thing is to attach the ground wire. Twist the ground wire from the cross bar with the end of the supply ground wire in the ceiling using a wire nut.

We are going to connect the white wire in the ceiling to the white wire on the fixture. We will also connect the black wire on the fixture to the black wire in the ceiling. Twist their ends together, and tightly secure them with the wire nuts by turning them clockwise.

Remember that fire extinguisher I mentioned? Yeah, remember we don’t want any crossed wires here. White to white wire, black to black wire. Now, you might have a red wire instead of black. Or, you might have clear wires and you can see how to wire those here where I installed a different DIY pendant light in my daughters reading nook.

Carefully tuck all the wires back into the junction box.

5. Install the Canopy Cover and Pendant Shade

Raise the canopy to the ceiling and secure it with the collar nut. See that exposed thread? That’s because we have a shallow junction box. THAT is the minor challenge we faced when installing our light fixture. An easy way to fix this is to just paint over the threads with some matching paint and you’ll hardly ever notice the difference.

Be sure to tighten the set screw on the grommet to hold it all together.

Remove the bottom ring from the light socket at the end of your light fixture. Slide the pendant shade over the light socket and re-install the bottom ring to hold it in place.

6. How many rebels does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Make sure you head back to your breaker box and flip the circuit to the on position. Install your favorite light bulb and flip the switch. Cross your fingers, not your wires and let there be light!!

Now, if you’re light doesn’t come on,  it could be that the wires aren’t connected well at the ceiling. Just double-check all your connections, but be sure to turn the breaker back off before adjusting any wires. If all else fails, throw in the towel and the screwdriver and call an electrician!

Our pendant light came with a 15′ 1/2″ foot long cord which still has a plug at the end.We only used about 3 feet of this cord, so we are going to package this baby up and save it for a future DIY project. Because being DIY Electricians is what we do here! :)

If you like our aged copper pendant light, you can find it here. It comes with or without the canopy kit in case you want to use the included hanging hooks and just plug it in. And just for following along on our adventures in electrical home improvement, you can get 20% OFF all lighting in our shop. Just use coupon code: DIYLIT20 at checkout.

Thanks for visiting and I’m going to get busy on some more ketchup popsicle.  :)

Finding the Perfect Rustic Ladder

We moved in back in January, hibernation season. Once springtime hit, it was time to get out. Ya know, meet the neighbors or at least get a peek at our surroundings. On a peaceful evening walk, as peaceful as it can be with small kids, there it sat on the side of the road just waiting. Waiting for us!

Laying there discarded and tossed out with last night’s pizza, it seemed we had found our treasure! The clouds parted and the sun shone down upon the most beautiful (rustic), glorious (beat-up, paint laden), and one of kind (we’re talkin’ held together with duct tape) rustic ladder I had been searching for! Consequently, we found a giddy-up in our step, rushed home, jumped in the car, and sped around the corner like Bonnie and Clyde (plus a 7 year old accomplice) to pick up our jewel! 

Waste not…

It was right there in that moment when one man’s trash became another man’s… old rusty ladder in the garage. And there it sat… for months.

On a peaceful evening walk, as peaceful as it can be with small kids, there it sat on the side of the road just waiting.

Finally, we decided it was time to give the old girl new life. We split the ladder in half, removed her bandages of duct tape and brought her inside. I had plans of using it as a towel rack in the girl’s bathroom, but the bathroom was too small. I was going to put it in the living room for blankets, but every corner of the room was taken. So, it moved to the bedroom where I would stare at it every night while I pondered on the perfect place for my well-sought find.

Finally inspiration struck! After updating the paint in the bathroom, I wanted to create some storage over the toilet in addition to some farmhouse decor. We turned the old ladder into a great farmhouse storage solution in our bathroom. Here’s a before of the master bath from when we moved in:

Cute, just not my style. And after a fresh coat of paint and some added farmhouse decor, here is the after!

We took off the bottom two rungs and realized the legs were too narrow to fit over the back of the toilet. For a moment, I thought maybe this just wasn’t going to work after all, and my glorious rustic ladder would have gone to waste. But hope was not lost! Never doubt a couple of creative minds coming together can make something work!  We cut down the legs, took off the old rusty hinge to prevent any accidental injuries, added some picture wire and a hook and this ol’ gal was ready to hang!

 Never doubt a couple of creative minds coming together can make something work!

Do you remember my black wire baskets that I transformed awhile back? I had been using them for craft storage. I moved these farmhouse painted baskets to a new home in the bathroom to hold my homemade soaps and some plush fluffy hand towels! We just attached one basket to the ladder with some screws and this one is in the bag!

My daughter loved it so much she had to join in on capturing some photos in the new bathroom. Seems like she just likes the camera no matter where it’s at. ;)

I tell ya, this girl is a natural. She knew just the right touches to decorate with. This little plant of lavender over the toilet was her idea. In fact, she even took the picture!

And this one too. Who doesn’t love some good little mason jar storage?

All that’s left to do here, is update a light fixture and mirror! Plans are in the works!

Along the way here, I’ll be sharing  the new house in it’s current state,along with our plans for updates and making it our own. Hope you like the new rustic addition of some farmhouse decor and maybe it will inspire you to find your own treasure and make it into some great storage ideas!

P.S. My daughter had to capture a little behind the scenes pic for ya!

I snagged up this great little farmhouse box in the garden section of Hobby Lobby. Have you ever bought something cause you just KNOW it was going to be just the perfect thing, only to find yourself months later still trying to decide what to do with it? Welcome to my world. This box has been moved around the house a gazillion times, has been a greenhouse box for seedlings, a display box for a few knick-nacks, maybe the occasional collect-all, and finally the light came on… a farmhouse breadbox.

I ordered etched glass vinyl and went to work in Silhouette editor. I did this in the basic Silhouette editing software and only downloaded the free Powell Antique font to create my design. Select the text button, choose your favorite font and type out your design.

I measured the glass panel on my box and sized my lettering to fit.

You know it’s never really a crisis until you’re ready to cut, weed, and apply your vinyl design and you realize you are fresh out of transfer tape. Yeah… luckily clear contact paper works just as well!

For this project, I chose the silver etched glass vinyl. While it looks pretty silver on the paper, once applied it is definitely a more transparent look… just like etched glass! ;)

Be sure to clean the glass so there’s no dirt to interfere with the adhesion of the vinyl. No special application technique is needed. I applied this vinyl the same way I apply all of my vinyl. Use a vinyl scraper and hold your mouth right!

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out and my new farmhouse breadbox. Finally my great find from Hobby Lobby has found it’s purpose! :) Be sure to check out more great Silhouette projects from my friends and great bloggers in the links below!

Watercolor Patriotic Napkins & a Simple 4th of July Tablescape – Pocketful of Posies

How to Use Vinyl Like A Pro Step by Step – Holy Craft

DIY Team Banner – Morena’s Corner
8.
DIY Wooden Slice Dishwasher Clean-Dirty Magnet – Simply {Darr}ling

Custom Wall Plates Using Your Silhouette Machine

Fans of the big leagues or the little leagues will love this barnwood baseball wall decor that’s simple and inexpensive to make. We made this from some reclaimed barnwood, but in case you don’t have that just laying around in the garage.. no worries! You can make this out of any scrap wood or the new shiny wood from the good folks at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Baseball season is approaching y’all. We have a little baseball fan in the family now and she’s got a swing that will knock your socks off. That’s right… I said SHE!! So for her 7th birthday, we wanted to decorate her room in her favorite sport ’cause you know we are her biggest fans! ;) Let’s start with some reclaimed barnwood.

We actually got all this wood from our neighbors! If you read my last post, I mentioned I’m in a new house now. Right up the road is a little farm with a TON of barnwood just sitting there. Sitting. There. Farmer Sherman was so generous to let us have whatever we wanted. I truly don’t know if Sherman knows what a treasure he has around him, but to do him honor, we are going to put this reclaimed wood to good use! Let’s get busy building!

I gotta tell ya.. our plans involve a lot of “eyein” it and measuring til we reach the point of  “yeah, that’s about right.”

But for what it’s worth,  we used 6 planks of wood with two planks behind them to brace and cut a circle measuring about 24″ in diameter.

Or if you’re not real good with measurements and diameters and angles and such, you can always just grab your workshop fan, take the cover off, and you have handy template for a barnwood baseball! It’s how we roll…  ;)

Time to cut this baby out!!

Disclaimer: Here at Creatively Southern we believe in safety first. Always wear your safety goggles when working with power tools and feet first… first time when jumping in the pool!

Once your done cutting you either have a fantastic barnwood serving tray (hey, there’s an idea!) or something that resembles a baseball. Now we just need to draw some laces on here. Given that I have little to no artistic ability, I let the expert handle this. He has an eye for this stuff but if you need a little help, grab a baseball to get some perspective and guidance on this one.

We could stop right here, slap some paint on, and call it done, but then where’s the fun in that!?

We were going for an authentic look here so that meant real laces. The laces are my favorite part of this wall decor. Well, maybe it’s the barnwood… It’s a toss up really. We drilled holes on both sides of each line drawn. Then we took this to whole different level…

We decided to we would cut our baseball in three separate pieces.

Wait, what?

You’re going to cut this perfectly round circle of fabulous barnwood in pieces? Here’s the point of no return y’all! Go ahead and cut again along your lace line that you drew. It’s okay, you got this…

See those rustic edges? Sets it off doesn’t it? We used the this fantastic little Dremel tool to sand down the edges where we cut to smooth it out. It adds dimension and any excuse to use the Dremel will do!!

Next we grabbed a can of our favorite spray paint and sprayed a light coat of Rust-oleum white satin over the wood. By light coat, I mean long swoops of spray paint 1 to 2 times across. You want some of the wood to still show through.

For the laces, we picked up some parachute cord at Michael’s craft store. Which by the way they just opened up a new better and improved Michael’s here in Knoxville. Ummm… let’s just say I was in awe when we went thru the front door. Two times the size and shiny crafty stuff EVERYWHERE from wall to wall. Pretty sure I got a glimpse of heaven that day, *sigh* …but I digress. Pick up some parachute cord at Michael’s for about $5 and you’re good to go! (Dare you to go in there and only buy the one thing you need!!) ;)

Here’s the tricky part. Tie a knot in one end of your cord. Push that up through one of your drilled holes on the end of your baseball.

Then you’re going to take that end and run it through the middle of your two cut pieces. and back up through another drilled hole on the opposite side.

Clear as mud right?

Hey, if you can lace up your tennis shoes, then you can lace up this barnwood baseball.

After lacing a small section, we went back and tightened up the laces to see how it was coming along. Not bad… not bad!!

Keep your patience and your wits about you and don’t give up!

Once you reach the end of one side, tighten all of your laces and tie a knot underneath to secure it. Then… rinse and repeat on the other side! :) In the end, you will have an authentic barnwood baseball wall decor!!

We had some picture hanging hardware that we mounted on the back so it could hang on the wall. Then you’re all set!! One of us got really creative and freehandedly (that is a word!) cut out a baseball bat to go along with the theme. Then we used our well-oiled Silhouette cutting machine to create the “Louisville Slugger” label.

There ya go folks! Do you think Farmer Sherman would be proud of what we’ve created so far with his ol’ barnwood? Let’s just say that it passed the approval of a special 7 year old slugger and that’s really all that matters now isn’t it? And just in case you’re not the DIY’er but would love to have one for your very own, you can purchase a custom handmade barnwood baseball in the colors of your choice in our online shop! Leave me a comment or share if you know someone that loves barnwood or baseball! In the meantime, we gotta a few curve balls to brush up on! ;)

Be sure to check out all the other great projects at the end of this post!!

Now, let’s get started on a vinyl no-chalk vinyl chalkboard sign, shall we? :)

The chalkboard sign I’m creating is a hot chocolate bar sign, and the great thing about using the Silhouette vinyl is it can be removed any time you are ready for a change. Just be sure you are using the removable indoor vinyl.

Time to decide on a quote for my chalkboard. It’s not quite Springtime and crisp cool nights keep us cozied up by the fire with our steaming cups of homemade cocoa. Some of the best times are shared making a good cup of cocoa and enjoying every sip together. That’s how I came up with this design, “All you need is LOVE and a little hot cocoa!”

First things first fellow crafters! We need a chalkboard and we need to prep it. Now you can find chalkboards like this one at every craft store, or you can make your own with a little wood and chalkboard paint like I did here and here. To prep my chalkboard for this project, I clean it with a damp cloth to get all that chalk dust that would make it difficult for the vinyl to adhere to. While that’s drying, lets get busy cutting the design!

In my Silhouette software, I set the page and cut settings for vinyl. This vinyl I’m using is a 9” x 24” piece leftover from a sheet I have of Silhouette White Matte Vinyl so I know I will have to get creative to fit all of the design onto this one sheet. That’s okay, I try to waste very little vinyl and we can just apply this design in pieces and it will all come together in the end.

I’m a visual person and need to see the whole picture of the design before I cut it, so I create my design off the page which let’s me see proportions I wanted for each word and illustration.I use fonts that I have previously downloaded for free and you can too! The fonts I’m using in this design include: A Love of Thunder and  KG Second Spaces Solid. I’m also using this cute design from the Silhouette Store that I downloaded into my library and modified just a little.

Now I’m satisfied with my design and it’s time to put it to the vinyl and get this baby cutting!

Remember this small piece of vinyl that I’m using? I’m setting my page measurements to the 9″ x 24″ piece I have so I can see my cut lines. I’m going to ungroup all of these words and move them individually into the cut area to squeeze it all in. It takes some adjusting and once I’m finished, it’s ready to cut. Here’s how it ended up:

Nevermind that it now says “Is all you need a little hot love & cocoa” :) That’s just how the vinyl cut y’all!!  Hey, whatever works for you!

Back to the Silhouette machine! After cutting the vinyl, now it’s time to weed the design and get it ready for application. You can use the weeding tool that comes with the Silhouette Machine or you can just use the closest Xacto knife like I do. I’m putting each piece on separately so I’m going to cut each word out and lay them out on the chalkboard to get a good feel for spacing and the big picture here.

Anytime I work with vinyl I apply the design using the transfer tape method. If you’re fresh out of transfer tape, good ol’ clear contact paper works great!! Just be sure it’s contact paper and not transparent film. Some of us learn the hard way, and that’s okay! :) A little tape, a little patience to get it straight and then it’s time to unveal the design. There’s nothing like peeling that transfer tape off and seeing a hint of what’s to come!!

After transferring the vinyl, it’s time to rough up the chalkboard a little. Remember I said you didn’t even need chalk to make this chalkboard? I use a chalkboard eraser that is already loaded up with chalk dust (complimentary of my 4 year old artist). Lightly run this over the chalkboard… gently… making sure not to peel the vinyl off. This gives it a more authentic look of real chalk. If you don’t have the chalkboard eraser, you can use a piece of chalk and lightly season the board by using the flat side of the chalk to cover the board, and then erase it. Y’all ready to see the final product?

That little steamy cocoa mug just puts a smile on my face!!

We’ve recently moved into a new house! More to come on that later, but for now I’m hanging this chalkboard sign in the kitchen where I’ve set up a small table with cocoa powder, marshmallows, sprinkles, and chocolate chips… all the things to make a hot chocolate bar. It’s the perfect height that my daughter can reach it and fix her own cup (with mommy’s assistance of course).

There you have it! An easy way to make your own chalkboard signs without the need for artsy handwriting or even one piece of chalk!! The best thing about this is when we are ready to change it out in a few weeks, I can just peel the vinyl off and start a new design. In fact, I think I better restock my transfer tape and white Silhouette Vinyl next week!! Thanks for stopping by and if you have a favorite vinyl project, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!! And be sure to check out all these other great Silhouette projects from my friends! They’ve got some awesome talent y’all!!

Hobnail House – Spring Cutout Banner

Pig and Rabbit – Princess Party Favor Bags

Pocketful of Posies – DIY Paper Olive Plants

DIY Passion – Wood Shim Wreath with Paper Flowers

C’mon Get Crafty – Sleeping Baby Delivery Sign

Tried and True – Easter Bunny Carrot Plate

Holly Craft – DIY Custom Phone Case

My Life from Home – Easter Candy Bucket

Knock It Off Kim – Bunny Paper Cut Vase

Dwell Beautiful – Harry Potter Accio Coffee T-shirt

Morena’s Corner – Custom Flocked Birthday Card

Simply Darrling – Upcycled Nautical Anchor Serving Tray

Green With Decor – Making Food Party Labels Using Silhouette Machine

Creatively Southern – How to Make Chalkboard Sign with Silhouette Vinyl

Craving Some Creativity – Print and Cut Silhouette Closet Organization Tags

Vintage Romance Style – How to Create Your Childs Silhouette