Christmas Clipboards

I'm trying to keep up with the  "12 Months of Christmas" project.  I didn't quite make the end of the month deadline (the month being March), but April 1st is close enough, right?



I make Christmas gifts for The Captain's office staff and this year started early with decorated clipboards.  I found these 6x8 inch clipboards at the Dollar Store.  I like this smaller size - just right for holding lists, coupons or notes to kids and husbands.



To start, I made a template so cutting out the papers would be quick.  Well, it should be quick, but I am the world's worst precision measurer and cutter.  After three tries, I finally got one that fit! 

Since the theme color for March was green, I searched my stash of papers for something green.  I cut a coordinating strip of green for the first one and punched out some holes with a paper punch.  Then rubbed inside the circles with an embossing pen and embossed with holes with white embossing powder.  I glued the strip onto the background paper.  A few fabric flowers added some texture and interest.



The clipboards are very shiny, so I used a sanding block to rough it up a bit so the glue would have something to grip.  I used a satin finish ModPodge to glue the background paper to the clipboard. After applying the glue I used an old credit card to press out all the air bubbles.  Don't skip this step!  After letting the board air-dry for a couple of hours, I painted on a layer of ModPdoge over the papered clipboard to protect the paper.



My friend Shiela gave me some Smooch Inks that I used to color the leaves and bird on the board stamped with the chair.  These are slow-drying pearlescent inks that come with a little brush, like a nail polish brush but much finer, so coloring small areas or lines is pretty easy.  There's a cool tutorial here.

Lessons from the first three:

Glue down the background first, then add embellishments or collaged papers.  It's hard to   
swipe  the credit card over 3D embellishments!

Thicker scrapbook papers are easier to work with than thin text pages.  The text pages have more tendency to wrinkle.  Workable, but more work.

After applying the top coat of ModPodge, don't panic if there are bubbles.  Let it dry and as long as the paper was glued down tight to begin with, it miraculously dries flat.  I've messed with it in the past, trying to smooth out the wrinkles after the top coat and just made it worse.  The text paper one was all bubbly and dried nice and flat.

These are fun - like making really big tags.  Three down, 25 to go!