Wedding Chalkboard Photo Backdrop

My best friend got married last weekend and she had asked me to help her create a chalkboard photo backdrop for her guests to take pictures in front of and enjoy! Of course I said YES!

I can now pride myself on being a pretty phenomenal "chalker". I have completed the wall in my shop as you can see here.....

...and now I will tackle a chalk photo-booth. *I should also mention, another incentive for me doing this board is that I get to keep it after the wedding!*

Her dad put the board together which I think would be the hardest part! He painted it with chalkboard paint and that is all I know about how it came to be :)

Once I had it, Kara (the bride) had to decide what she wanted it to say. She had found a post on Pinterest that used a chalkboard photo booth and decided she liked it enough to try to replicate it as best we could. Thanks Averie Lane!

Create the Files

I think this is super super easy and oh so fun! I started by using either Microsoft Word or Pages and created the files of the "phrases" in the fonts that we liked and wanted to use. Then I printed them out.

As you can see, they are just printed on normal paper. I just picked fonts, and then placed them appropriately on the paper.

If you want some fun font options, check out dafont.com and go to town!! Try not to get carried away!

Enlarge the Files

Kara and I used a tape measure and decided how far apart we wanted each "phrase" and how many could fit on each board. We decided that each "phrase" would be about 2 inches apart. So that allowed for us to have each phrase enlarged to be 14" tall. The length could be however wide your board is. Ours was 2.5 feet. So we took approximately 12 pieces of paper into Office Depot and asked them to enlarge each to be 14" tall and 2.5 feet long. It does not matter that this is disproportionate or will be blurry when printed because you won't be using it in that way.

Trace the Files

This is when the real fun begins! Kara and I turned up the music and traced all day long! All you do is take your giant piece of paper, turn it over and cover it with chalk (well only the part you will trace, i.e. the words). Scribble away! Chalk that baby up!!!

Then measure and tape! Measure on the board where you want it to be placed, and use some tape to keep it in place.

Then take a pencil and trace the words! You don't even have to press hard. Just easily trace all the way around every letter. Just to make sure, you can lift of your paper and peek underneath and there it is, perfectly chalked letters!

Chalk It In

Since this was for a wedding and it would be carried and touched and moved and transported, I didn't want to actually use chalk to color in my words. So I picked up 4 chalk markers at Hobby Lobby. I used two big fat ones and two normal ones.

The only tricky thing about this step is you want to make sure you match your font. If it is a bold font, you will want to color in your bold letters. If it is a thin font, then you won't. 

This font required small lines throughout each letter. Lots of work but looks SO good when you are done!

To help make this look as perfect as possible. I pretty much used a ruler for everything that had a straight edge. It helped me outline everything to be as straight as possible. I didn't use it for one of the phrases and it BUGGED me to death because it didn't look as straight as all the ones I had used the ruler with.

And don't worry! If you mess up, all you have to do is erase with a wet rag. Just know that if you erase everything you will have to start from scratch again my covering the paper with chalk and re-stenciling.

Finishing Touches

To make it not look so bare, I drew in some "squigglies" around the borders to help make it more fun!

Now I get to start all over and make it work for Treat Dreams! I think I will take it to shows and fairs with me. It will make a great background don't you think?