DIY Chalkboard Vinyl with Oracal 651

From food storage to home décor pieces, chalkboard vinyl gives you the versatility to decorate and label any flat surface by turning it into its own chalkboard!

And now with THIS hack, you can turn regular, glossy adhesive vinyl into chalkboard vinyl. It's so simple, and here's how to do it!

Trick to Removing Bubbles in Vinyl (And Preventing Bubbles at All)

Is there anything more annoying then bubbles under your perfectly cut, adorably designed vinyl?  You can scrape and rub and burnish all you want, but sometimes those little pockets of air just hold out.

Today I'm here to tell you, there is hope!  You do not need to rip off your vinyl and start over. You don't even need to peel it back up and you certainly don't need to live with them.

Chalkboard Heat Transfer Vinyl Cut Settings and Review (Free Silhouette Design)

So the 100th day of school is coming up and my kids have once again asked for a custom shirt to wear to school...just like they did on the first day of school and like I know they will on the last day of school.

This is a sponsored post but all opinions are my own.

YOU GUYS!! That's when this  lazy smart genius crafty mom idea hit me. I could use the new Siser Chalkboard HTV to make one shirt for all of these 'Days of School'?

Chalkboard Printables Template: Free Silhouette Studio Cut File

It's freebie Friday and this week I'm sharing a free chalkboard printable template with you! These are popular for the beginning and end of the school year and since it's Back to School time I thought you could use it - even if the first day of school has already happened.  Don't worry in 15 years no one will know that the third grade 'first day' picture happened during the second week of school. ;)

Funny, too, right?!

DIY Chore Chart Using Chalkboard Vinyl (Free Studio File)

Last week I gave you a sneak peek of this project in the tutorial on applying vinyl straight, but today I'm going to share the full reveal.   My daughter has come up with some pretty creative ways to fill up her piggy bank...like selling water with Craisins in it (when life runs out of lemons..make craisin water, I guess). So my husband and I decided to have pity on the poor neighbors and come up with some chores that our 6 year old could do to earn herself some money to fill out her stuffed animal collection (are you picking up on my sarcasm here?) ;) 

Anyway, we needed a way to keep track, so I thought I'd make a chore chart that she could check off the chores she's done throughout the week allowing us to add up her chores at the end of the week.  The easiest way I thought we could do it is by using something like a chalkboard that could be erased and re-used.  Enter Chalkboard Vinyl and Chalkboard Markers!

This project is actually super simple...and I'm making it even easier for you by proving the free cut file at the end of this post.  I used a label design from my library and made it really big to get the shape of the chart.  I cut out the chalkboard vinyl (you can pick some up at My Vinyl Direct in the specialty vinyl category) out - it's about 8x10.

Chalkboard Style Subway Art Tutorial

Almost as popular as the recent Ice Bucket Challenge is the Chalkboard Style Subway Art.  I've had several people ask how they are made and so today I thought I'd share how you can make one with birth stats, first day of school info, or a milestone birthday.   I'm making one for my daughter's first day of school, but you can do whatever theme you'd like - the process is the same.

There are several programs you can use to create these, but I think the easiest, most user-friendly and best graphics package is PicMonkey. So we're actually going to start in PicMonkey - you can design the entire chalkboard subway art there, but I want to incorporate a few 'extras' so we'll be using Silhouette Studio, as well.  If you're not familiar, PicMonkey it's a free photo editing and design website that offers tons of fonts, designs overlays, graphics and more.  You can get the upgraded Royale version which I think is more than worth it for $33 a year, to gain access to ALL of the graphics and fonts...but it's definitely not necessary for this project.   Royale features are indicated by a little gold crown in the program.