Pages

\

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Cute Clipboard Christmas Gift

I made a few of these last year to give as gifts so I thought I would post a tutorial on them. These are oh so cute on the door or the wall to hold chore charts, honey-do lists and grocery lists. I do love organization! Disclaimer: image quality=less than acceptable. It was really rainy and the lighting was bad. I know, excuses excuses. Maybe one day I will have an awesome camera that takes beautiful, professional-quality pictures, one day.






You will need a clipboard, thanks again Wal Mart! (I have made them using clear and brown, both are equally cute)


paint pens (you can also use paint and a brush if you would rather)
ribbon
hot glue gun


First, you need to create a template for the initial in Microsoft Office Word. Insert word art, type your letter in the font of your choice, and enlarge it to cover the whole page. Make sure to choose a bold font so it will be easy to cut out and trace around. For brown clipboards, flip the paper upside down and trace the letter from the bottom with a pencil. Make sure to appy plenty of lead. Flip the paper right side up, place it on the clipboard, and trace from the top. The letter should appear on the board, if not rub harder on the back. Trust me this is easier than trying to get the paint off of the brown board if you make a mistake. I hope that makes sense.






For the clear board, cut out the letter and tape it in the desired location and trace it with a paint pen. Fill it in with the pen color of your choice.













For the polkadots, trace something circular, I used the bottom of a cup, but you can use whatever size you want. I think it would be cute to use a star-shaped cookie cutter for a boy's room. Fill in the dots.





Now for the bow, there are a bazillion types of bows that you could use (try my favorite function: google). This is just one type. Take a length of ribbon, the longer the ribbon, the bigger the bow. Loop one side around to make the first half of the bow and pinch to hold in place.








Loop the other side around so that it looks the same as the first.








Pin in place and thread a needle. Wind the needle through the bow and pull tight (see pic)



Wrap the thread around the bow several times and tie off at the end. Cut excess. To keep the tails of the bow from fraying, paint on a little clear nail polish.







I hot glued a second bow without tails inside the first to make it look a little fuller. I also added a button to the middle. Hot glue the bow to the top of the clip part of the clipboard so that it can still open and close. Thats it! Hope you enjoy making these and let me know if you do!






XOXO



Ramsey

Linking to:

The DIY Show Off



Dare to DIY

The How to Gal
DIY Day @ ASPTL
BCD Show and tell

10 comments:

cindy said...

These are really cute (and practical)...I've got some clipboards hanging around here somewhere, might have to give this a try in the new year once I've recovered from the holidays :)

So glad you linked up to Mi4M~
cindy

Roeshel said...

So cute and such a great gift idea! Thanks so much for sharing in the DIY holiday party! I'm a new follower - it's nice to 'meet' you! :)

Roeshel

Anonymous said...

So cute! My girls would love these. ~Kelly

unDeniably Domestic

Recaptured Charm said...

Very cute Idea! Maybe if I listed chores on this little cutie my kids would do more??
Its worth a try.
Thanks for sharing.

Angie Holden said...

So cute! My kids would love these! And I can think of some teachers that would as well....

Katie said...

Oh wow I love it, using a paint pen is such a great tip. I always think I'd have to break out the brush and paints, which usually results in wobbly painting. This is an awesome I idea and I am so going to do this!

Charity said...

I just finished modge podging(sp) scrapbook paper onto brown clip boards for my Sunday school students. I like your idea better and will use it next year. MERRY CHRISTMAS

Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...

That is really cute, Ramsey! I love the clear one!

Maryann @ Domestically-Speaking said...

Really cute idea! I love organization & making it cute always helps.

Unknown said...

That is SOOOO cute! Great job! I might have to give it try.