DIY Cake Topper & Chalkboard Signs

More wedding related stuff, yay!

Maybe you remember this post here, where I made a chalkboard sign for our guestbook. Well, I bought a couple more chalkboards from Hobby Lobby (these were $8.99 each, and are fairly big, a little over knee-high). The only problem is - they're not made out of slate? like the smaller chalkboard (and most real chalkboards). They feel like black plastic. Which made my previous method of tracing onto them with an Xacto knife very difficult.

I did the same method as before - I traced my letters (using different fonts) onto sketch paper, then taped it in place onto the chalkboard. I used an Xacto knife to "trace" out each line of every letter, and leave an etched outline on the chalkboard. Since these were plastic, they don't scratch easily so it took 3 Xacto blades and a very heavy hand to get them done (but it is possible). Then I used a fine-point white paint pen to outline and fill in my words. At the wedding, I'll use regular white chalk to draw arrows under "ceremony" and "reception" as well as write up the Menu for the day!

I also finished our cake topper. You may remember it resembling this:

I bought the wooden banner cutout on Ebay for a little over $1 a piece (I bought 2 in case of mistakes). I bought a wood burner and extra piece of wood to practice on. I changed the design of the words a bit, and drew them with the wood burner.

Then the coolest part - staining the wood. I used Kool-Aid! haha. I searched online for ways to stain wood that would be colorful and food-safe, and Kool-Aid came up as an option. So I bought a pack of Lemon-Lime for .20, and mixed a little bit of powder with water (making sure it was green enough). I used a brush I had on hand - a cheap old foundation brush - and did about 10 coats. And yes, it tastes like Lemon-Lime, lol!

Maybe one day when I remember, I'll take pics of my milk glass collection so far, as well as the other awesome deals I've gotten for my wedding! But all my stuff is stored in Moosh's closet, and I only ever blog during naptimes and at night.