Dollhouse Miniature Classroom Boards

Watch the video here.

First off I know this is a terrible name for the video but frankly I just couldn't think of a name for it. So feel free to comment if you have a better name. In some ways coming up with the name of the video is sometimes the hardest part of making the video.

If you watched the video I made last year of the tour of the Farm-stand when I got it done you saw the chalk boards I put in there. This is pretty much the same idea except this time I wanted to eliminate the need to cut miters for the wood frame. Last year I ran out of time and ended up skipping the frame all together. I decided that it would probably work to use wood look paper so I played around with the idea and this project is the result.

In the past when I have seen projects for chalk boards the most common method is to paint a wood piece with the appropriate color of paint and call it good. I have a problem with that. First off it is next to impossible to get rid of the wood grain with just a couple of coats of paint. Secondly with the paint you run the risk that you will warp the thin wood you are working with. I like the finish of the plain scrapbook card-stock much better for making a convincing surface. If you want to add some “chalk” marks to your board just use some colored pencils. They sharpen down to a nice sharp point so you can get a good in scale mark. You might want to do that part before you frame your board in case you make a mistake. It is much easier to glue on another sheet of card-stock that to re-do the entire project including the frame.

For the cork-board I just used the cork patterned paper but I have seen real cork in thin sheets in some craft store scrap-booking departments. Either will work just fine.

The wipe-off board took a bit of thinking, I knew what I wanted the result to be I just had to figure out the process. Gluing the paper to the back of the clear plastic was one of those middle of the night ideas. Thankfully I had picked up some doughnuts at the grocery store bakery the day before so I had the box lid to play with. I must say it worked out really well.

The size on this project is entirely up to you, just think about what size board you would use in the space in real life and scale it down to the mini size. I have some videos on scale and how to work with it on my channel if you aren't familiar with the process. It really is easy to do.