Measuring Spoon Chalk Board Display

I've been wanting to do this project for several years. I received several cool sets of measuring spoons in bridal showers, and have inherited several sets from special people. I knew I wanted to display this special heritage in a special way. I've just never been in the right place or had a right feeling idea. With our new home came both the place AND the idea. I wanted them to hang on the cabinet face perpendicular to where we were planning to hang the generations of rolling pins. I also wanted them on a board or rack that could be removed (No holes in the cabinetry. I don't care if we own it.) I decided a thing board would be good and that it would need to be framed as to "class it up." Framed chalk boards are all the rage and the chalk board idea carried appeal because then I could label the sets of spoons AND come up with a doodley changeable quote.  First the frame:

Michaels was having a 40% off frames sale. AND there was a 15%off already on sale frames coupon. Double bam. The helpful sales accociate helped me locate some that might work with my dimensions. I picked two options with mats hoping that the rom for a mat would give more room for wood. Luke voted for the more simple one, and I knew if I went for the fancy one and didn't have enough room, I'd get the loathsome "told you so."

Upon entry to Michaels, my first question was "Where is chalkboard vinyl?" I'm not fond of waiting for paint to dry these days  and I saw a Pinterest tutorial where they just dropped the vinyl in the frame. Done and done. Sign me up. Several secret employee walkie talkie conversations later and I was looking at Cricut chalk board vinyl and then the manager came hustling over and handed me this product and says, I just used this. You want this. It's awesome. Sold. I used my 50% off coupon. 

Where are the chalk pens? This one worked pretty well. There's totally a learning curve. 

I had some of these L Hooks from a previous project. 

Last but not least I got 12 lb Velcro command strips for hanging my creation hole free. Yaaaaay!

This piece of pretty1/4 inch plywood was left in our garage. I think they used it for cutting things on with a razor. I just needed it as a base for my hooks to screw into. I tried cutting it with a razor blade. No go. Luke ended up hitting it with the circular saw. Thanks to the frame, a rough cut was fine. 

It did no want to fit in the frame with the back. I took it out front to hammer the edges to hopefully make them thinner and a better fit. I worked. Luke helped me stick the surprisingly not so sticky vinyl on (the key part may have been that this vinyl isnrepositionable) and squeeze the layers into the frame like when I put on skinny jeans. Here are a few of the layouts I contemplated. 

We settled on the last one so I'd have room for a quote. I marked my drill spots with pencil utilizing a handy dandy wilt ruler. Love these things. 

I used my smallest drill bit and sunk it pretty far into the holster to keep myself from drilling too deep. 

The pencil marks rubbed off okay enough and once I "seasoned" the chalk board it was a non issue. 

In went the hooks and row one was done. 

On the second row I went ahead and put my straight line in and then measured my points. I liked this method best. In retrospect I should have put all my lines on before putting hooks in but I was kind of still experimenting. 

Once the hooks were in I seasoned the board. I rubbed the chalk on it.  

Then I rubbed it in with a dry paper towel.  

I drew light lines in chalk to give me guides for my lettering. Then I used a chalk pen for my actual lettering. I'd seen warnings online about some chalk tearing the vinyl. Be warned. Once the chalk pen had dried I was able to rub the guidelines in with my dry paper towel. 

I followed the command strip mounting instructions and voila!