Chalkboard Advent Calendar

We converted our outdated louvered pantry door into a cheery holiday focal point in our kitchen.

Awhile back we knocked the outdated louvered slats out of our pantry door as part of our neverending kitchen remodeling project, and inserted a piece of drywall coated with chalkboard paint. It's been a handy spot to write messages and grocery lists, but as I was decorating for the holidays, I decided to make it into an advent calendar for our kids to count down the days until Christmas.

It was quite simple, really...hardly any instructions required. I started with a small boxwood wreath hung with a burlap ribbon from the top of the pantry door. Then I freehanded the script words, and used a ruler to draw a calendar grid.

Here are some tips for lettering a chalkboard: 1) use a cheap handheld pencil sharpener to get a point on your chalk and 2) moisten the tip of the chalk before writing with it (it will look faint at first, but will be a brighter, more precise line when it dries).

For a marker, I used a little wooden tree that I had left over from another craft, but you could use a foamy shape, a button...anything really. Since our pantry door isn't magnetic, I just stuck a little poster putty on the back of the tree and it works great.

I hope you like this simple project! Visit all of the other awesome projects on the blog hop linked from my blog.

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/11591779/chalkboard-advent-calendar site