DIY Chalkboard Teacher Gifts with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint
*Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint graciously provided the wonderful milk paint products for this post. However, all opinions are honest and 100% my own.
*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure page here.
To honor teachers and celebrate next week’s Teacher Appreciation Week, I thought it would be fun to create a special handmade gift for your favorite teacher. Last year when we transitioned to homeschooling during quarantine my level of appreciation for teachers increased tremendously! I have always appreciated teachers, and I think it is so important to show them how thankful we are to them. Enter today’s handmade gift: DIY Chalkboard Teacher Gifts.
I love this DIY because you can use any picture frame you already have, and you can personalize it to match your teacher’s favorite color. I chose 4”X6” frames because I envision the chalkboards sitting on a teacher’s desk, but you can choose any size you want to.
To finish off the picture frame, you can tie up a piece of chalk with your favorite ribbon. I used my handmade silk ribbons from my Country Peony Vintage shop.
If you have been here for a while you may know that I love Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. Their paint makes anything look amazing, even a piece of scrap wood. So follow along to see how I turned some wood into a chalkboard gift for my children’s teachers.
Watch My Live Demo!
Click below to watch the recording of my live stream demo on Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint Facebook page to see how I made these chalkboard teacher gifts. I take you through every step of the process.
Follow Below for the Step-by-Step Picture Tutorial to Make Your Own Chalkboard Teacher Gifts!
New to Milk Paint?
Here are some of my most recent milk paint endeavors: DIY Speckled Easter Eggs, DIY Heart Garland, Farmhouse Christmas Village, Thanksgiving Tablescape, DIY Milk Paint Pumpkins, Thrifted Windsor Chair Makeover with Milk Paint, DIY Dresser Makeover with Milk Paint, Media Cabinet Makeover with Milk Paint, and the DIY Bench Makeover with Milk Paint.
Beginning your milk paint endeavors with smaller projects like this is a great place to start. I love painting furniture with milk paint, but it can be intimidating. The key is to just have fun! Milk paint is very forgiving and you really can’t go wrong.
Before we start, I created this video a couple of months ago showcasing how I updated a thrifted Windsor chair using Miss Mustard Seed’s Arabesque. It may be helpful if you are new to milk paint.
Cut a Piece of Wood to Match the Picture Frame Size
Cut a piece of plywood or particle board to fit inside your picture frame.
My husband cut out (3) 1/8” pieces of plywood for my picture frames.
Mix Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint
Mix 1 part paint powder to 1 part water. Since this was a smaller project, I used 1 tablespoon of milk paint to 1 tablespoon of water.
I always recommend starting with less so you don’t waste your product. You can always make more paint later. A little bit of milk paint goes a long way especially with this small project.
Whisk the paint together with the water until the paint is fully integrated into the water.
I have found that a miniature whisk is the best mixing tool to ensure the milk powder stays fully integrated into the water.
Your paint mixture should look like a thin pancake batter once it is mixed.
Paint the Wooden Boards with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint
Apply 1 thin coat of milk paint to the wooden board.
No prep is needed since you are starting with raw wood. The milk paint will soak beautifully into the raw wood, and won’t chip.
Let it dry!
Once dry, apply a second coat of milk paint to the wooden board. Then, let it dry!
Season the Chalkboard
Once completely dry, rub chalk onto the milk paint to season it and create the chalkboard.
Then wipe off the chalk with a dry cloth to get the “smeary-chalky look”.
Once you season the chalkboard, it is ready to go!
Create More Custom Chalkboards with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint
For this project I used 3 different Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint colors.
The blue is Eulalie Sky. I also created a custom green color that has more of a vintage chalkboard look with 2 parts Boxwood Green to 1 part Schloss. And, I finished off with my favorite color: Arabesque.
Place the Wooden Chalkboards into the Frames
Add a Special Message to the DIY Chalkboard Teacher Gift
Use the the chalk to add a special, custom message for your teacher.
You can even get your children involved by asking them to draw a special message for their favorite teacher. Like I did with my five-year-old daughter.
*Use a dry cloth to erase any chalk letters or drawings so you can re-use it for many years to come.
Finish off the Handmade Chalkboard Gift with a Ribbon and Chalk
Lastly, tie the sweet handmade gift off with a beautiful ribbon and some chalk. Then gift away!
*I used my handmade silk ribbons from my Etsy shop.
Enjoy Gifting Your Handmade Chalkboard Teacher Gifts!
I just love how these sweet handmade gifts turned out. I also love how the color palette plays together.
This was one of the simplest and cheapest handmade gifts, but I believe it turned out so well!
I truly hope you enjoy making these and gifting them!
Thank you to Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint for providing the wonderful products for this post.
Thank you so much for following along today. I hope you enjoy experimenting with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint as much as I do!
I believe crafting is more fun when we share our projects. Please email me at elizabeth@countrypeony.com, or please tag me @thecountrypeony or #countrypeony to show me your beautiful, custom creation!
