Altered clipboard by Angie Briggs made with the Musica Collection Mini.

Step One: If you are going to paint your clipboard, you will need to lightly sand both the back and front. Then coat both sides with a paint color to coordinate with your paper you're using. Let this dry well.

Step Two: Measure your clipboard from clip down and cut out your patterned paper according to how you would like to lay it out. If your paper slightly goes over the edge, this is not a problem. It will be taken care of in the last few steps.

Step Three: Brush a light coat of decoupage adhesive on your clipboard and place your pattern paper on top of it. Use something with a straight edge (ruler, etc.) or a cloth to rub out any air bubbles.

Step Four: If you would like to decorate around the clip, you will need to cut out two pieces of paper approximately 3.5x1 inch. Attach these pieces to your clipboard using the adhesive, then take a kraft knife and trim off the extra pieces around the clip.

Step Five: Let the adhesive dry well, then taking a piece of sand paper, sand the edges of the board to remove any extra paper.

At this point, you have a clipboard that is ready to decorated or to be "sealed." If you are going to decorate the clipboard with flat materials, like this one that was a gift, I would go ahead and decorate, then either add a layer of your decoupage adhesive over the top as your sealent or use a clear spray adhesive. If your plans are to add loose items (flowers, photos, ribbon, etc.), I would seal the clipboard, then decorate.

Tutorial written by Angie Briggs

Clipboard by Angie Briggs

Clipboard by Angie Briggs

Clipboards by Ro

For those individuals who would like to try doing making their own altered clipboard. it seems that the trick to success is putting the decoupage glue on the back of the paper AND the object you are gluing it to before sticking the paper down. I would have prevented the air bubbles had I actually READ these directions on the bottle prior to starting out. But as such is my life - I rarely read directions. So I got what I deserved in the end.

One very handy hint for you - and it's one that I haven't read anywhere else - is to give your printed papers a light spray of an artist's spray fixative before starting to decoupage. This helps to set the papers, prevent smearing, and keeps the colors bright and true once your start spreading around the icky-sticky glue with your brush. Just spray it outside or in your garage because believe me, your family WILL complain if you use it in your basement crafting room. (Okay, I confess. I did it.)

Clipboard by Ro

Clipboard by Jan Hicks

For this gift for my son’s teacher, I used the wonderful calendar templates (retired) created by Tonya Doughty. These templates made it so easy to create a special gift for a special teacher.

I simply looked through the paper that matched what Tonya used for each month, and created a photo matte for the calendar. My son’s teacher, although she likes to scrapbook herself, has two little children, and doesn't have the time right now to create anything for herself. So I’m hoping that she can find some special pictures to fill these pages with, and use this in her classroom each day. I’ve attached the calendar pages to a clipboard I had made before, so she’ll be able to use the clipboard even after 2006 is over.

I created all of this digitally, by the way. Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone! LOL!

(Note from Ro: Jan is supposedly the most die-hard paper scrapper that ever happened, so this is quite a revelation. I've even heard rumors that she is making layouts now... It's okay, Jan. You can be a hybrid scrapper just like me.)

Clipboard by Ro

Here is one of the clipboards holding the calendar I made, using Tonya Doughty's great Easy Page 2006 Calendar Set (retired). That thing SAVED MY CHRISTMAS-GIFTING BACON! It was so easy to do and it came together so nicely. Thank you very much, Tonya, for this one!

If you want to make YOURSELF a cute calendar, there are lots of calendar options in our Boutique. Check them out!