Chalkboard Calligraphy Calendar with Henna

I hesitate to call today’s blog post a “tutorial” on chalk design or chalkboard calligraphy because it’s less of a step-by-step and more of a “maybe you can garner inspiration from what I made” post. Basically, we’ve got this chalkboard hanging in the corner of our living room. It’s a wonderful, big chalkboard that my mom made with chalkboard paint and an old painting acquired at a garage sale.

Because we live in an apartment {hello, white walls!}, I think it’s important to have plenty of art around to add visual interest to the experience of being in our apartment, and to make our space more homey. In the case of this chalkboard, I knew I could make it visually appealing and functional by turning it into a chalkboard calligraphy calendar that also happens to keep track of our workouts. Hernán calls it “The Wall of Shame”; I call it “Our June Calendar”.

To get started, I of course got out my chalk. It’s just standard chalk from some store like Target or Kroger. My secret to getting these to write like I want to is breaking the chalk in half. I find that doing this gives me nice, jagged edges that can write tiny details with more ease than intact chalk. {You can buy chalk pencils that would be quite easy to write with; but sometimes I like to do things the hard way.}

I also laid a ruler down to give me a guideline to write the month’s name straight. I have a tendency to write chalkboard calligraphy with a severe slope up if I don’t do this.

Then I wrote out “June” in Kaitlin style calligraphy.

You know how I’m always spouting the importance of faux calligraphy? Well, here’s where knowing how to create it comes in handy! I drew lines to denote my downstrokes …

… and filled them in.

This chalkboard is pretty large … probably 5’x2′ or so. Effectively, I knew I needed a big space filler. I deferred to my old standby — a henna design.

I love henna because it’s fun to look at and it doesn’t take long to make. You can begin and end it when you want, and you can get creative with it. Though the design would probably have looked fine as just an outline, I also wanted to add some shading. I took my finger and smudged chalk where I wanted to fill in areas with a bit of white.

Usually after doing this, I’d go over the outline again so it would look crisp and clear.

When I was satisfied with the henna design at the top of the chalkboard, I began to draw out the calendar. I used my ruler to ensure straight lines and even spacing.

Once my grid was drawn, I added in the dates.

Then, I drew a horizontal line at the bottom of each day and divided it into three checkboxes. The first belongs to Hernán, the second to my friend/workout buddy Kristina, and the third to me. The idea is to put a check in the box if we work out on that day. It’s amazing how motivating a checkmark can actually be!

I didn’t like the negative space on either side of the calendar, so I added in some crisscrosses.

Then, I continued my henna motif on the bottom of the board.

… And I added some text under “June” to fill in that negative space.

The chalkboard calligraphy calendar was fun to make, and I think it makes a big difference as far as making our corner more inviting.

{If you’re wondering what the heck that brown thing is, it’s a Pillowsac. I always have to explain it to guests.}

So, I mentioned that we live in an apartment — and while I don’t mind it, I am looking forward to getting a house next year-ish when Hernán finishes grad school. The first thing I am going to do is paint one entire wall in my studio in chalkboard paint. I think that would be so amazing! You could draw chalkboard calligraphy, designs, calendars, to-do lists … anything, really. But in the meantime, I’m content with this big chalkboard; and I hope I have inspired you to draw on your own chalkboard. If you don’t have a chalkboard, it’s pretty easy to make; Wikihow has a good tutorial.

Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

XO,