chalk

For Women’s History Month, Ed proposed to his client do a Dolly Parton Mural. Ed started by creating a Dolly stencil art image

And scaled it up for the large chalkboard wall.

Dolly Parton, the legendary country singer and songwriter, is known not only for her incredible musical talent but also for her philanthropic work. In 1995, she founded the Dollywood Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to improve literacy rates among children in the United States. The foundation’s flagship program is the Imagination Library, which provides free books to children from birth to age five. Since its inception, the Imagination Library has distributed over 150 million books to children in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The program has had a significant impact on childhood literacy rates, with participating children showing improved reading skills and a love for learning.

In addition to her work with the Dollywood Foundation, Dolly Parton has also contributed to disaster relief efforts and other charitable causes. Following the devastating wildfires that swept through her home state of Tennessee in 2016, she established the My People Fund, which provided financial assistance to families who had lost their homes. She has also donated millions of dollars to support research into COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. In November of 2022, Jeff Besos gifted Dolly with $100 Million dollars to support any charitable cause she chooses. Dolly Parton’s philanthropic work is a testament to her generosity and commitment to making a positive impact on the world.

The client, Chalk Gyms, pride themselves on great music in there gym, so picking Dolly was a sweet fit.

Chalkboards are so trending right now, I see chalkboard projects everywhere. I wanted to do some layering effects on the board and make it useful too. Also, I am a list person and creating this board will save me paper!
Here’s how I made my To Do board:

First I took a wood art board and poked two holes in it so later I could string it with twine to hang.

I then painted the board with Chalkboard paint. I used traditional black. I painted two coats.

Once that dried I stenciled the words “to do” on the board using my Corsiva alphabet stencil.

I wanted my to do board to be fun so I used my birds on wires to add these little guys and the lines function as areas to write. I stenciled using very little white paint to make it look like chalk but not be erasable. Once that was dry, I conditioned the board with some chalk. You have to rub chalk all over the board then erase it. Otherwise, when you write on your board, it may show permanently what you wrote.

I then strung some twine to hang the board. Hung, chalk ready, and time to write my list!

What Would Dolly Do?

Chalkboard to-do how-to!