DIY Club Tutorial: Make A Lemonade Stand

I am very excited to have finished my first of hopefully many DIY Club submissions. I squeezed this one in after school yesterday and met the deadline by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin
 
Other than shopping for a few supplies and letting paint dry this is a quick and easy project. In fact, this blog post is taking longer to write than most of the steps in making the lemonade stand!

Supplies:
1- Printer cart/stand- I found mine on craigslist for $5. I notice these things pretty often at Goodwill too. You could also just build a box on wheels.

2- 4' redwood garden stakes - I got mine at HD for about $1.50 each
A piece of thin plywood that is the same size as the front of your cabinet. Many hardware stores will cut plywood for you. Don't forget to check for bargain off cuts in their scrap bin!
Gorilla Glue- The glue of champions!

Gorilla Tape
Chalkboard paint and foam roller
Deco Art Americana Fabric Medium
Deco Art Americana Acrylic in Ebony Black
Assorted screws and a screw driver
Hot glue or a sewing machine
Fabric scraps for banner
Towel ring- (optional) I got mine at Goodwill but it's similar to this.
Cup hooks
sandpaper
pinking shears

Steps:
1. Sand the edges of your plywood smooth.

2. Paint the plywood with several coats of chalkboard paint. My roll on paint takes three days to cure, thus the text edited photos. I promise to update this post with a chalkboard action shot latter.

3. Pre-drill holes for the redwood garden stakes and screw them into the back of your cart. I used two screws each for extra stability as seen below.


4. Attach cup hooks to the top of each redwood garden stake. These hooks will hold your banner up.

5. While paint is drying, make your banner! I used three triangles of scrap fabric and about a 15" of other fabric for the "string" part.

6. I want potential customers to see this stand from a mile away! So, I painted some friendly lemons on my banner with Ebony Deco  Art Americana acrylic with some Deco Art Americana Fabric Medium mixed in. I just free handed them and used the end of a paintbrush and a pencil eraser to make the dots.

7. While the banner dries, affix the towel ring to the side of your cart. I used both screws and Gorilla Glue since I feared the cart walls might be quite thin. They look thick, but at certain points they are hollow.

There was this weird little gap in the ring, so I taped over it with Gorilla Tape and shoved it into the holder. It's nearly invisible and now the ring is much stronger.

8. By now, the fabric banner should be dry, so make the "string" for the banner. I took a 20" scrap and sewed it in half. You could also just use ribbon. Then I trimmed the raw edges with pinking shears.  I measured between my cuphooks for length and sewed a loop to each end like this:

9. Sew or hot glue the triangles to the banner "string."

10. By now the chalkboard should be dry. So predrill and screw it onto the front of your cart. I used Gorilla Glue as well. Now the board is good and flush around all the edges.

The final step is to paint those screws to match the chalkboard.


Actually, for me the final step was to stage it for blog photos and lament greatly that I was out of real lemons and colorful cups. Sigh.
Updated: Three days later the chalkboard paint is cured. Let the fun begin!

As always, feel free to click on any photo for a better view or ask any questions in the comments.

Thanks to all these lovely ladies and the sponsors for hosting the DIY Club!Updated: I am a finalist!! You can vote for me here.