First day of School Chalkboards

We have finally handed off our youngest to her first day of Kindergarten today. Our son started 4th grade last week. For each child, I made a chalkboard for the 1st and Last day of school. I designed these in Silhouette Studio-Designer Edition and cut all details with the Silhouette Cameo 3.

First I purchased two chalkboards from Amazon. When they arrived, I found that they could be used double sided! I ran some Espresso wood stain around the wooden edges instead of leaving them bare.

Then I started cutting my layers of vinyl, starting with the white. (With large pieces of vinyl, you do not need to use the mat with the Silhouette machines) 

I bought this roll of contact paper from WalMart for under $6. I have used this for years when I do vinyl and feel it works just as well as the expensive name brand stuff.

Since I was dealing with a bunch of little tiny dots, I used the reverse weeding option. A little tip, if you leave it like it is in the photo below overnight, the excess vinyl comes up like butter on hot toast!

Next I just lined up where I wanted the vinyl to be on the board and pressed it down into place.

Continue doing these steps for all the colored vinyl and the boards are completed! 

Each board has 5 layers of vinyl on BOTH sides of the boards. I was pretty much done with vinyl by the end of these things!

Phew it is so quiet in the house, I might actually get some projects done this week!