Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. This means if you sign up for PicMonkey’s awesome Royale version, I will earn a small commission & you will be supporting Carrie This Home at no extra cost to you!
I LOVE all the chalkboard family rule signs I see on Pinterest and in the stores.
But there’s always a problem.
- They are too expensive.
- Some of them weren’t the right size.
- Others didn’t say exactly what I wanted.
So I decided to make my own & here it is!
I absolutely LOVED making this. It says exactly what I want and it has the right look I was going for. I made the picture on PicMonkey.com and had it printed off as an 11 x 14 photo poster at my local Walgreens. I then framed it in my living room and now it’s my favorite thing to look at (besides my kids).
Want to make one of your own? Here’s how to do it!
DIY Chalkboard Family Rules (*)
Go to PicMonkey.com and click on Design
Then click on the desired size. You can choose to use the custom size option if needed.
This little legend will pop up on your screen. The “canvas” on your screen will automatically be set on white. Click on Apply.
Click on the Themes button (the little snowflake at the bottom left) and then click on School U theme.
Scroll down and click on Boards. Choose your board, click apply and then the chalkboard will magically appear on your canvas. Isn’t that great?
Once the chalkboard background pops up, you can start adding the words you want.
To add text:
Click on the text icon on the far left side of the screen.
Choose the font you like.
Click the Add Text button. A little white box will appear over the chalkboard. Click on the box and type your first phrase.
Changing the text to white (or any color you choose)
Highlight the text you just typed. In the text legend, drag the little circle in the color window to the top left corner until the words turn white.
I thought the words looked more realistic faded a bit, so I changed the fade to 10% in the text legend.
Some other helpful hints:
To put words on a slant or perpendicular, while the text is highlighted, drag the top middle circle to the right or left.
To make the text bigger, highlight the text then you can change the size in the text legend or drag any corner of the text box.
One last IMPORTANT step
Make sure you leave plenty of room on all the edges of the artwork. The biggest mistake I always make with this project is not leaving enough room on the edges. When I get it printed off as a photo, some of the words get cut off. Believe me this is beyond frustrating!
So moral of this story is, leave your project open on PicMonkey, before you print it out or have it printed as a photo.
If printing the project out at home, print it out and see how it looks. Make any changes if necessary.
If you choose to print the project out as a photo, upload the photo to your photo printing website (like Walgreens) to make sure all the words will not get cut off. To do this I put the photo in the cart and click on crop to see exactly how it will print out. If you need to make more room, go back to your project on PicMonkey and adjust accordingly. If you didn’t leave the project open, you’d have to re-create the whole project over again.
I’ve had to do that several times so I’ve learned my lesson 😉
The Finished Project
When I picked up the print, I thought it looked great.
Then I put it in a frame and started jumping up and down and clapping because it looked so good.
True story 😉
The chalkboard family rule sign really adds a lot more life and personality to this otherwise boring wall, right?
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. This means if you sign up for PicMonkey’s awesome Royale version, I will earn a small commission & you will be supporting Carrie This Home at no extra cost to you!
(*) Some of the original directions to this project have been changed. The original source I used for the chalkboard was not a high resolution image.
This post linked to Create It Thursday Tatertots and Jello Give Me The Goods Monday, In an Out of the Kitchen, Work It Wednesday, Family Fun Friday, The Weekend ReTreat, Serenity Now, Weekend Wind Down, Skip The Houswork Saturday, Saturday Sharefest, Get Schooled Saturday, Inspiration Monday, Project Inspired, DIY Sunday Showcase, Think Pink Sunday, Frugal Friday, Thrifty Thursday, Motivational Monday, and Inspire Me Please
Love that you can make this yourself. Thanks for including the pattern!
You’re welcome! Sharing the background makes it easy for you to make it your own!
Hello! I saw your linky on Think Pink Sundays at the Flamingo Toes blog, and thought I’d stop by to say hi! LOVE your blog! What a cute idea! I think it’s SO very important to have family rules posted! I think I’ll have to do something like this soon!
Gingi at http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
It really is a good thing to have displayed. I used it the other day with my daughter in helping teach her to be kind to others. It came in handy! I hope you get to make one soon!
Featuring at Family Fun Friday!
Monica
http://www.happyandblessedhome.com/2014/01/family-fun-friday-week-54.html
Wow! Thank you so much, Monica! This project was one that made a huge impact without spending a lot of money so I’m happy to share it!
Neat! I’ve been doing it in Photoshop… but I think your way might be easier!
Thanks again for sharing and for linking up at the Weekend Wind-Down Party with us!!! God Bless!
I’m happy I helped you find an easier way to do this!
I LOVE this! Thanks for the tutorial. I’m pinning it so I can make this.
This was one of the most fun projects I’ve ever made. I hope yours turns out great, Cindy!
I just made this and I love it. It was cheap and easy. Thanks so much!!!
Isn’t it so much fun making your own artwork? I’d love to see what you made!
What a great piece of art for your home and so meaningful too!!
Carrie…your tutorial is wonderful. I use PicMonkey all the time and I even picked up a tip!!
Thanks so much for sharing your Extraordinary inspiration at Project Inspire{d}!!
Blessings!
~Diane
p.s. Sharing on Facebook!!
I’m practically a PicMonkey addict–I’m so glad you learned something! Thanks so much for the FB share too! I really appreciate it!
Love this print-thank you for sharing!!! I think I’ll try this on a canvas.
You’re welcome! I love to share projects I’m excited about. Glad to see you’ll be incorporating it into your decor!
Super cute chalk board! Pinnning and sharing:)
I’m honored you like it enough to share it! Thank you so much Michelle!
How fun to make your own, I’ve felt the same way about the ones I’ve seen, they are not quite right for my house. Gotta love Picmonkey and all their nifty tools 🙂
My walls would have a lot less artwork with out PicMonkey! Thanks for stopping by!
Oh Carrie, I just love this! Totally pinning it!
Thanks so much, Tasha! I take that as a compliment coming from you!
What a great idea, I love Picmonkey – thank you for sharing and linking up with us at the #WWDParty. Have a wonderful weekend.
I love this, I use PicMonkey all the time and I’ve never really paid much attention to the Design option, now I’m going to be spending much more time this it.
Thanks for the great suggestions and I love the Family Rules, especially how you personalized it to your family. Thanks for sharing
I’m so glad this was inspiring for you! It really makes my day hearing about how my posts help foster creativity in my readers. Thank you so much for the encouragement!
If you were close by, I’d give you a hug. I’m fairly new to PickMonkey and haven’t played around with it as much as I should. I usually just use it to make collages and edit pictures. So knowing that I can make my own designs just made me jump for joy. Saving money!! Thanks so much for sharing this!
You are very welcome, Cherie! I would gladly take a hug! I love it when I’m able to help others through my posts so I’m so glad you told me how helpful this was for you. I’ve made so many projects and blog stuff using PicMonkey–it really is a money saver!
I absolutely love this, I love the look and everything it says! I also love the placement of it on the wall 🙂
Thank you so much Cathy! Being able to customize it and get it to say exactly what I wanted was so exciting for me. So glad you like it!
I love Picmonkey…so far just use the free version. 🙂 Lovely.
There is so much you can do with the free version! That’s one reason I love it!
I use PicMonkey for so many projects! It’s a great tool. Your family rules looks wonderful! Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing at Family Fun Friday.
Glad to have a fun place to share it, Stephanie! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Love it! And I agree…I made my own as well because none of the ones I found said what I wanted it to
Carrie, this is fabulous. Thanks so much for sharing. I already pinned it! Visiting from the Work It Wednesday link party.
I take that as a huge compliment because I love your projects! Thanks so much for the pin and have a wonderful week!
How were you able to keep the resolution high enough to be good quality? I am having difficulties keeping it clear 🙁
Oh no! I’ve not had that problem but I think I may know something that would help. When you save it, Picmonkey gives you different options on how to save it. Go ahead and save it as the highest quality (I thinks it’s called Roger) and see if that works. I hope this helps!
Unfortunately I have. 🙁 I will just try Walgreens. I used Walmart- maybe that is the problem? Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I made one for home and one for my classroom today!
That would be such a cute decoration for a classroom! The other thing I thought of is Picmoney has a chalkboard background you can use. I think it’s under the school U theme. I bet if you use their background the quality issue would be fixed. I ended up printing mine as a 11×14 and if you look closely you can see some pixelation but it’s not bad. Good luck!
I love your version of the “family rules”! So pretty! Thanks for the picmonkey tips too–I always love learning new tricks. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, Miss Carrie!
~Abby =)
The great thing is everyone can customize this project! I’m so glad you liked it, Abby!
I will need to try this! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’d love to see what you come up with! Thanks for stopping by!
I am with you – they are either too expensive or don’t say what I want them to! I love yours though!!! Such a great idea! Thanks for linking up to Give Me the Goods Monday! Love having you party with us!! Jenna @ Rain on a Tin Roof
This looks great, Carrie!! What a wonderful idea :). Thanks for coming by my blog earlier- Love having visitors!
I’m so happy to see others getting excited about this project! Your blog is so cute! Thanks for stopping by!
This is an incredible project…thanks for a great tutorial! This would be great to link-up to my Create It Thursday post…it’s live now! http://www.lambertslately.com/2013/05/create-it-thursday-4-plus-features.html
I’m so glad you liked it! I love the Create It Thursday party & I linked this post and another one (#135 Teacher Gift Idea) Thanks so much for the compliment, Leslie!
Love – nice job Carrie. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks Megan! I love sharing fun projects like this!
Very cool! Love the design & layout and I can totally relate to picmonkey borders–I wish you could save it & keep working on like office documents….still a very cool program for free!
I wish I could edit pictures like an office document! That would make my life a lot easier 🙂 I’m so glad you liked it, Beth!