Sanding Sunday

Welcome to Sanding Sunday!  It's been a long time in the making, but has final arrived!  I know you were probably thinking...WTH!  How long does it take her to sand something down?  Well, I'm here to tell you, NOT VERY LONG!  For my first SS project, I decided to do something simple and quick.  I took an old picture frame with an oil painting in it, sanded down the frame, then painted on top of the picture with chalkboard paint.  It was super easy and super quick.  I made my own chalkboard paint.  I got the recipe here.  It's really easy...promise.  All you do is take paint, I used some acrylic craft paint that I've had forever, in black, and mixed it with some unsanded tile grout.  I think my box that I purchased from Home Depot says Non-Sanded, instead of unsanded...same thing.  Plus, the smallest box I could find was a 5 pounder and all I needed was about a tablespoon...so I have enough non-sanded grout to make chalkboard paint for the rest of eternity.  Anywho, then I mixed the paint and non-sanded grout together and painted on top of my painting.  The only thing is that you have to work really really fast. The paint mixture dries almost instantly and your chalkboard paint turns into a really pastey hard consistency.

Here's a picture of my frame and painting before, beautiful isn't it (can you sense the sarcasm?):

Here it is after I painted it green.  Again, I used some acrylic craft paint that I've had forever.  I initially painted the top groove of the frame a pretty yellow, except it wasn't so pretty when I got it in there. So I covered it up with some green and that's why it looks a little lighter in the pic.  It could probably uses another sanding, painting, and a coat of poly, but I was feeling kinda lazy.  I think it's OK, don't you?

Here it is finished.  It now sits proudly in our dining room by the window so the boys can produce one of a kind pieces of art.  By the way, once I had the painting back inside the frame, I seasoned my chalkboard by rubbing chalk all over it then wiping it off.  I read that it makes it easier to write on it with...I didn't find that to be true, but did it anyway.

I do have to say, that the painting was painted on some sort of hardboard...masonite, pegboard kind of material.  It was not on a regular canvas.

I hope you enjoyed my first installment of Sanding Sunday!  I have many more projects to come!

QUESTION:
What projects are you working on?