{My Favorite Bloggers: Apple Chalkboard Frame}

Hey, y'all!  One of the BEST things about blogging is the friends that you make along the way.  It's rare that people who don't have blogs understand how you can have friends that you've never even met before, but I have soooo many friends whom I love dearly that I have yet to meet in real life.  (I hope that changes one day!)  These friends are there to answer blogging questions, offer support during tough times, and are so encouraging.  I'd like to introduce you to some of these bloggy buddies of mine...

From left to right, top down:

Kristen from One Tough Mother; Sky from Creative Captial B; Marilyn from 4 You with Love; Tara from Suburble; Bethany from Pitter and Glink; Melanie from It Happens in a Blink; Kara from Petal to Picots; ChiWei from One Dog Woof; Sarah from Repeat Crafter Me; Kadie from 7 Alive; Nancy from Small Things with Love; and Amy from One Artsy Mama.

We decided it would be lots of fun to team up once a month and create projects based on a theme.  This month's theme is APPLES.  It was fun coming up with my project, but even more fun to see the creative projects the other ladies made.  As a teacher, I always equate apples in August with school, but some of these ladies totally thought outside the box.  Check it out:

After you've checked out my project, head over and check out some of these other great APPLE projects.  The links are all listed at the bottom of this post.

Now on to my apple post!  I almost ran out of time to create a project this month with an apple theme.  After Back to School Week last week, I was almost appled out, but two days before the projects were due, I thought of this idea, and I'm so glad I did.  Check out my Apple Chalkboard Frame!

To make this, you need a wooden frame.

I bought mine from Walmart, but they sell them at any craft store.  To begin, paint your frame with chalkboard paint.

Follow the directions on the bottle of paint to make sure you wait enough time between coats.  (I always paint at least two coats when using chalkboard paint.)  The paint directions will also tell you how long you have to wait for the paint to cure before you can use the chalkboard surface.  While you're waiting, you can create the fun little apple.

You'll need a hammer, small nails, and an apple template.  (I simply drew an apple on some white paper, but you can do a Google image search if you don't trust your drawing skills.)  Cut your apple template out and hammer nails around it.  Then you simply knot apple-colored embroidery floss around the nails and wrap the thread around the nails to create the apple.  (I put a little bit of No-Fray on all the knots to make sure they don't come untied.)  I then conditioned my chalkboard surface and my frame was complete.

I love that I can write on the frame, and I think the little apple is the perfect touch to what would otherwise be a boring chalkboard frame.

I'm going to use this frame on my classroom door to make sure people know my room number, so I created a little "Room 100" image in PicMonkey and printed it out.  Yes, my room number is already above my door, but for some reason, people never see it, and on top of that, they always think I'm a student.  Sometimes people have the most bewildered looks when walking into my classroom...

Hopefully this cute little frame will help with the back-to-school confusion a little.  And speaking of back-to-school, today is my first day back at school.  Say a little prayer for me...  I hope I don't fall off the face of the earth for a couple of weeks, but the first week or two back to school is usually the most hectic, stressful time of the year for me, and I sometimes don't have time to blog a lot.
Don't forget before you leave to check out these other APPLE projects from some of my favorite bloggers!