Ten Blackboard Tips

Today I thought I would post some tips for using our Blackboard shapes. Take these ideas, use them as your own and become a scrapbook superstar!

1. Rub on the rub-ons! This is a fast and easy way to make cute Blackboard embellishments. One piece of advice, if your rub-on of choice is going to hang over the edge of the Blackboard shape, trim it off before starting to rub.

2. Stamp your Blackboard with chalk ink. I love this look!

3. Edge your Blackboard with a white pen, it really makes the edges POP.

4. Wrap your Blackboard with wire, thread, string, staples or fibers.

5. Glitter and Blackboard, one of my favorites! The polka-dots are made by putting down glue dots and then glittering. The dashes are glue dot dashes (imagine that). I also like stamping with glue and then glittering (wash your stamps immediately afterward).

6. These look like they are just plain, and although Blackboard is nice plain, it's also great with Glossy Accents! I love the cogs from the Cogsmo Blackboard done this way. In fact, so much that I've used them all and didn't have any on hand.

7. Use gold leaf with your Blackboard. I use gold leaf much like I use glitter. The leaves are done with glue, but the dots....... you guessed it, glue dots.

8. Paint your Blackboard. I love the metallic paint by Folk Art, but any kind of paint works. I've even used nail polish!

9. Get out the pastels. I have used oil and chalk pastels. These examples are chalk. It's fun to blend and shade, just use a fixative over the top when your done (aerosol hairspray will work in a pinch, but I doubt it's acid free).

10. Cover them with their matching diecuts. The new lines diecuts are even adhesive backed (stickers) so you don't have to use glue or anything! Sometimes I like to offset them so that I have a black shadowed edge showing, like on the bird above.