DIY Thank You Gift

This past weekend, Nelson and I went to San Francisco to take engagement photos. My lifelong friend (and one of my bridesmaids!) is a talented photographer and she was nice enough to take our pictures for us. It was a gorgeous day in the city and we all had a great time spending the day together.

 

I wanted to give Elysha a thank you gift for taking our pictures, but I wanted it to be something special. Because this would be the first time we were seeing Elysha's new apartment in the city, I thought it would be cute to make her thank you gift something that could also serve as a gift for her new home. She also loves crafts, so I was looking to combine the DIY with the housewarming idea. That's when I remembered these Chalkboard Plaques the Girls Team made back in 2012!

 

My mom and I picked up the supplies when we were at Michael's with our overflowing cart. We bought the stand and the wooden plaque, then bought more chalkboard paint at Lowes. We had primer and gold spray paint in the garage...MIHM suggestion: everyone should always have gold spray paint handy.

I set up shop in the backyard.

I wanted to spray paint the stand gold for some flashy flair. It took about 60 seconds to spray paint the stand gold. YOU GUYS. WHAT ELSE CAN I SPRAY PAINT GOLD. THIS WAS AMAZING. If you have ideas please leave them in the comments below...seriously, I have a whole can and I'm not afraid to use it! :)

I painted two coats of primer onto the wooden plaque and let it dry overnight.

The next day I painted two coats of chalkboard paint onto the plaque. Two coats is very important (according to the guy at Lowes) and I could tell that the second coat did make a big difference in terms of smoothness.

 

Shout out to my dad for helping problem-solve before I even knew there was a problem! The newspaper that I left under the plaque as I painted on the chalkboard paint stuck to the back so he sanded it off before I came to pick up the plaque, leaving for a nice and clean backing. I was able to write a nice note to Elysha with permanent marker on the back, splinter free!

The finished (and amazing) gold stand.

The finished gift!

 



I was really happy with how much gift turned out, and Elysha liked it a lot too, which is the most important thing. :) It took about two days to complete this project due to drying time, but only about 20 minutes to actually prep. and paint. It's great because while this is a homemade gift, it is still something that somebody can actually use. They can make their own sign on it, use it for a grocery list, draw on it, etc. etc. The Girls Team will definitely keep these chalkboard plaques in our back pocket as DIY gift ideas, and we suggest you do too!