Simple Homemade

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Chalkboard Background

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chalkboard background info
I’ve jumped with both feet into the chalkboard art and chalkboard lettering bandwagon! Have you? I am having fun with the look and decided to make my own chalkboard background for making printable, buttons, labels, etc.
black chalkboard background

You can download my free chalkboard image background here.
This is the large, full size image so you might have have to resize it.

I made the button for my Valentine’s Day posts with a chalkboard background and the label for the Sugared Pecan with a chalkboard background. I used Ribbet to make both of them and used the fonts they had available, but there are so many fun free fonts out there. One of my favorite free online photo editing websites is Pixlr and guess what? When you install a font on your computer, that font shows up in your Pixlr font choices! YAY!

chalk hand font

So, how do you do it? First, you find a free font to download like something from DaFont or this Chalk Hand Lettering Shaded font by Fonts Cafe. Just remember that most of these free fonts are for personal use only!

Click on the font you want to download and a Downloads box with pop up. Double click on the folder (Chalk-Hand-Lettering-Shaded_demo.zip).

opening font file

This box will pop up next. Choose Save File and click OK.

This box showed up next. Double click on the font folder to open it.

select true type font file

Double click on the TrueType Font File to open it.

choose install font

This is what should show up. Click the Install button in the upper left corner and the font will install on your computer.

pixlr screenshot

Go to Pixlr.com and choose the Pixlr Editor (Advanced). Open the chalkboard background that you saved to your computer. I started by resizing the image (choose Image from the toolbar and then Image Size) so that the type would be larger. Click on the letter “A” from the tool box on the left. Click where you want the type to go and then find the font you want from the drop down box.

pixlr screen shot of chalkboard background

Change the color and the font size and add the text. Woohoo…now go crazy downloading a million fonts!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Charlotte says

    I can not seem to download any of the chalkboard fonts. Perhaps I am not clicking in the right section? I just want the fonts so I can create a board for my school event.

    • Tonia says

      Hi Charlotte,
      You can download Chalk Hand Lettering from Fonts Cafe here: http://fontscafe.com/free-fonts
      Scroll down to where you see the font and click on the image of the font. The file should download to your computer and then you have to open and install it. Best of luck!
      ~Tonia

    • Tonia says

      Thanks Jess! Your are very welcome. I just found some really cute chalkboard labels and chalkboard markers in the dollar spot at Target!

  9. Di from Life is Di-licious says

    Wow. This is great Tonia. I have Photoshop but haven’t leant how to use it yet. I’d never heard of Pixlr either. Loving chalkboard labels and signs (just organised my playroom with them). Would love to play around with them for my blog.

  12. Ginger says

    How did I not know about Pixlr??? I’m off to check it out! 🙂 Oh & I never have printer ink so I always just send my prints to Walmart & get them printed in matte…lots easier & cheaper. 🙂

  13. Lindsay says

    This is so cool! What a fun idea! I would have it printed at Costco if I were to do this, so inexpensive to print there. Thanks for the awesome idea!

    • Tonia L says

      Yep, pretty much! 🙂 I haven’t printed a lot of the things I’ve made. I just use them for my blog posts and whatnot. Ginger suggested having prints made somewhere…that might be a cheaper option for you!