Traveling chalkboard buddies~

This was my feature post over at CHOOSE TO THRIVE last month.

Traveling chalkboard buddies.

Living here in Turkey has put my life in perspective and I am very glad at times for not having everything at my finger tips it is good to live simply and 'use what I have'.

 

 There are no big, nice, absoulutly fun craft or fabric stores over here so instead of always wishing for something else I started using what I had and that has become 

my theme for this season:  

"Honor God, live simply, use what you have and give the rest away."

Well let's start creating... with what I have on hand. 

~Really the first order of business for me is to get a cup of tea. 

~I had some left over chalkboard paint that I brought back from the U.S. and I have been wanting to use it  up.. so

~I Grabbed a cardboard box. I have several. :)   

~ I drew a stencil from paper of a doll and car then

cut out the doll and car shapes from the cardboard box.

Need to be careful not to step on the box or push your hand down on the box to hard or you end up with big dents in your cardboard buddy.

 ~ I painted the chalkboard paint right onto the cardboard. It took 2 coats of paint. 

 Each cardboard buddy was dry within about 30 min. total.

~Here my little traveling chalkboard buddies are painted and dry but not quite ready for travel. 

They need a little beautifying.



~covered the opposite side with the contact paper and used  the ribbon to create a handle.

I used my x-acto knife a lot for this entire project

 I created little name tags from scrap book paper and used the only stamps I own. :)

.

And here they are:

~ All you need is a few pieces of chalk and a small package of wet wipes and off you go.

~These are perfectly fun for a road trip.

~ I used a play dough container for the chalk for easy travel.

 ~My girls also like the idea of playing school with their chalkboard dolls. 

We have our buddies hanging on a little hook by our kitchen table. Great for the kids at snack times and waiting for lunch!!

My girls helped make these three rectangle ones for our friends who will be traveling.

~These rectangle ones honestly took 10 minutes after the paint dried

 but the shaped ones took me a bit longer. 

~They wipe off great with a damp rag or a wet wipe. 

                                      Hope you enjoyed this simple 'use what you have' creation.                           

This has been such a great opportunity and a lot of fun.

Thanks again Nike you are great to work with especially with me being a new blogger on the block. :)

Happy creating to all of you, and thanks

for joining me in my  'use what you have' project.

All for now, time for a cup of tea.

                                                               

 ~becky