Purple Sage Creations

SHOW~N~TELL monday

Keeping Those Papers Organized

Can you hear the school bell ring?  Yep!  It's that time of year again...Back to school.

 

And that's my inspiration for this little creation:

 

I have 3 children in school right now.  After school each of them reach into their backpacks and hand me a stack of papers.  Some are just for me to enjoy and some have to be signed and returned.  The trouble is, I don't remember who gave me what sometimes.  And I can't always rely of my little ones knowing.  They hardly glance at them most of the time.  I had to find a way to organize them according to child. 

 

This is how it works:  My children place the paper that I should see on the *in* clipboard and attach a clothespin with their name on it to the papers.  I take a look at them, place any signed papers on the *out* clipboard also attaching their name clothespin to the stack.  I made a clothespin for each of my four children and one for my DH and I.  This way the entire family is covered.  So even though the picture above only says *MOM* and  *DAD* there is one for each of us.  And the twine holding the clothespins is full when all of us are on there.

 

So I showed my creation for today, now let me tell you how I made it...

 
I found two inexpensive clipboards.  I painted each of them with Barn Red paint using a sponge brush.  It took a couple coats to completely cover.

 

 
After they were dry I stamped the apple boarder from PTI's School Time stamp set using Whisper White Craft Ink from Stampin' UP.  When dry I added a black and white gingham ribbon.  One clipboard I tied a bow, the other I knotted a couple lengths of ribbon together.

 

 
To create the tag I punched Old Olive cardstock with the scalloped punch (both from SU!).  The I used stamped the apple using Ridinghood Red from SU! and the boarder with black StazOn ink onto PTI's white cardstock. (both these stamps were also from the School Time stamp set).  I used a circle punch to punch them out.  Then I used a white gel pen to create the little dots on the scallops.

 

 
The same method is used for creating the clothespins.  Just stamp-off the apple before stamping onto the tag.  This way it is lighter and easier to write names using black marker.

 

 
Then use super strong double sided tape to attach the small clothespin.

 

 
I used a tag punch to display which clipboard was *IN* and *OUT*.  After punching I stamped the notebook stamp from the same stamp set onto the white cardstock.  I used Baja Breeze ink from SU using the stamping off technique.  Then I wrote *IN* and *OUT* with black marker.  I attached them to the top right side of the clipboards with super strong double sided tape.

 

 
As a finishing touch I added ribbon to the top of the clipboards.

 

 

And this is what it looks like in use...

 

Hopefully this will keep us much more organized and be helpful for you too.

 

I'm participating in...

 

Great Christmas Gift Idea - Thanks Michelle

Ok...I have had about a gazillion gift ideas in my head these past few weeks.  But I have not made any of them!!  None of them have really gotten my juices flowing.  That is until I happened across Michelle Wooderson's blog.  She had a positively adorable tutorial about her Clipboard Notepad Organizer.  When I saw that I thought it would be the perfect gift for my mom and dad and sister.  So my  juices finally started to flow.  

Michelle's clipboard was primarily centered toward Christmas organizing.  I wanted my clipboards to match the decor of my mom and sister's homes.  I also wanted them to be available to them all year long.  I looked through all my designer papers and chose to use my Stampin' Up paper.  I covered the notepads and printed the labels on the computer.  I don't even remember what font I used, but I really liked it because it looked stamped.  The labels say; Honey Do, Shopping List, and Things To Do. 

 

The two gifts really didn't take me very long to create.  Now I just need to hurry and get them in the mail before it's too late!!

The Details:  Clipboard 1 - I painted the clipboard with an off white acrylic paint.  The notepads are from PTI and are covered with Not Quite Navy cardstock, Bella Bleu DP, and Kraft Cardstock.  The labels are stamped with Vintage Labels (PTI) in Chocolate Chip ink.  Then it was diecut with my nesties. The ribbon is Very Vanilla from SU!  The buttons are from PTI.  I used Not Quite Navy cardstock to hold the notebooks.  The ribbon on the top is from my craft room stash.

Clipboard 2 - I painted the clipboard with a chocolate color to match the chocolate chip cardstock holding the notepads.  The notepads are covered in Chocolate Chip cardstock, Sahara Sand cardstock, and To the Nines DP from SU!  The ribbon is Chocolate Chip grosgrain from SU!  The labels are stamped with Vintage Labels stamp set (PTI) in Chocolate Chip ink. Then cut with my nesties label.  The ribbon on the top of the clipboard is Whisper White. 

I LOVED making these and think they are just darling.  I need to make one for myself.  Thanks so much Michelle for this awesome idea!!