On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
…but chalk markers DO make it a lot easier to write on a chalkboard. This is my freezer-challenge-friendly meal plan for the week, written with chalk markers:
(Doodles at the top are by Joshua. ;))
I never could write small enough with a piece of chalk to include 7 days on the menu board, but now there’s space for 7 days with room to spare. Yay!
I’m not sure why the writing looks so gray in the photo, but it really is a lovely bright white…brighter than regular white chalk.
I’d been wanting to try chalk markers for a while, but never got around to picking up a pack. So, I was super pleased when Chalk Ink sent me a sample pack, which includes a variety of spring colors.
Zoe tried them out on one of the Goodwill frames I turned into a chalkboard last summer, and the colors are great.
From what I can tell, these are more expensive than what you could buy at a craft store. But, I think these are a little nicer than cheaper versions (Panera and Whole Foods use Chalk Ink for signage, actually.)
I’ve never tried any other ones, so I have no point of comparison, but we do like these and I’m interested to see what my artistic kiddos do with them.
(Especially Joshua, who happens to be quite gifted at drawing! His parents are both kind of stuck in the stick figure stage, but he’s left us in the dust and is turning out some pretty great stuff these days.)
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P.S. I made the menu board out of an ugly old Goodwill framed print this past summer. Details about that project are here.
P.P.S. Chalk Ink markers are available on Amazon
and also directly from Chalk Ink, but I don’t think they’re sold in stores.
Jo in RI
Thursday 23rd of April 2015
We don't use much chalk around here (except sidewalk chalk), but I just read your Earth Day post (totally agree with that), so I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around using these, which I assume get used up and then you have to toss the empty plastic or whatever pen that holds the chalk ink, versus regular chalk, which gets completely used up and comes in a recyclable cardboard box! Maybe these last a long time, etc, and it doesn't seem like a lot of waste in the end. My mom was the queen of frugal, and I practice much of what she taught (and what you do as well), but every once in a while, like now, her voice is maybe a little bit too much in my head!
Kristen
Thursday 23rd of April 2015
You know, this did not even occur to me! Which is weird, because I do usually think about trash production, even when it comes to crafts.
Hmm. I know Crayola makes markers FROM recycled plastic, but I don't think the markers themselves are recyclable.
I do think these will last for a long time (I'll mostly use them for my menu board) so this isn't a huge waste of resources, and I'm not gonna stress about it (esp. because I already have the markers. Heh.)
I wonder if chalk markers are a net gain, ecologically speaking, when stores use them for signage. Regular chalk is hard to use neatly for signs, and if you used chalk markers to remake a sign enough times, that'd have to be less wasteful than printing new signage each time.
Julie@frugallyblonde.com
Tuesday 21st of April 2015
Silly question, but how do you remove the writing? Does it rub right off like regular chalk?
Kristen
Tuesday 21st of April 2015
I've just been wiping it off with a wet cloth and that seems to work really well.
Reese
Tuesday 21st of April 2015
We use these at work on a big black dry erase board (replicates the look of a chalkboard). They're great for actual chalk boards OR dry erase boards. They come in big thick markers or small thin ones. And every color under the rainbow. We use windex to wipe them off the dry erase board. :)
SO FUN! Love seeing you experiment with these!
Dori
Tuesday 21st of April 2015
I've been curious about using chalk pens since they make it so much easier to have your chalkboard look come out nice, but I've heard that they can sometimes leave ghost marks behind after you wipe them off so I've never bought any. What's been your experience with washing the chalk ink off your chalkboard?
Kristen
Tuesday 21st of April 2015
I've just been wiping it off with a wet cloth, and so far, ghosting hasn't been a problem any more than with regular chalk. So, yay!
SandyH
Tuesday 21st of April 2015
Hobby Lobby too! That's where I got mine, and it's been three years and they're not used up yet! Granted, they don't get as much use as yours might, Kristen, but I do use them quite often. I recently bought two small ceramic jars with a chalkboard "space" on the front, so small there's no way I could have used chalk to write anything on them. My daughter, who letters beautifully, wrote "creamer" and "sweetener" on them for me, and I put them on a tray with a glass jar of k-cups and and teabags.