Photo Clip Board Craft

So, in January my ward held a service auction. I signed up to give a service, though it took me so long to think of one. I figured there would be a lot of food ones, so I wanted to make mine different. Mom gave me the idea of my service being a Valentines/Mothers Day craft gift.

Mine went off without a hitch. So many guys were bidding on my service. The one who ended up winning told me it was going to be for his mom. So, I asked him several questions, thought and planned. I decided I was going to do a picture clip board. It's a wood plaque with cloths pins to hold the photos. Here is the end product:

Here is what I used:

1- 11"x14"x.68" Oval Pine Plaque

1- bag of 2 1/2" mini spring clothespins (Number of used depends on personal preference)
1- 2oz bottle of Americana Buttermilk acrylic paint
1- 2oz bottle of Americana Sour Apple acrylic paint
1- 8oz bottle of Americana Lamp (Ebony) Black acrylic paint
3 foam paint brushes
3-6 small paper cups
Sand paper
Wood letters
Hot Glue gun

How to do it yourself:

I started off by figuring out how many clips I wanted on the board and clipped them onto the end of 2 paper cups. I then went through and painted each individually, leaving one side blank. That side doesn't particularly matter because it will be glued to the board. Be sure to get everywhere so only the one side is blank. like this:

The next step is to paint the letters. Now, this is where you can really personalize. This one says "Family" because it's for a mother who has a budding family. You can make it say whatever you wish. To make the letters pop out, we used the green on the sides of the letters instead of painting the whole letter cream. Again, this is where you can personalize. Choose colors that fit your purpose. This is how the letters turned out:

I then painted the entire plaque green, except the back, of course. I then painted black over it. We did this so that when we give it the aged look, it will show green and tie it in rather than the wood color. I also decided while painting to leave some of the green exposed on the ornate border. I used regular fine paint brushes to touch up some of the areas on the green border. Be sure to use the same stroke on the top layer so it is consistently going one way. Don't worry about the top layer being perfect, it's ok to let the green show through. After letting it dry, use the sand paper and in one direction, just have at it. rub a a little bit in some places and hard in others to get an uneven wear look. The pictures of these steps:

I then placed all the letters and clips where I wanted them to be. I used a pencil to mark little spots to remind me where each piece went. I then used the hot glue gun and glued each piece to the plaque. The clips I glued them so that the ones on the bottom opened down to clasp the top of a picture. I glued the clips on top so that they opened up to clasp the bottom of photos. I did not put anything on it to hang it up to the wall, but there are many things you can do. The back was flat, so you could purchase wall fasteners or even find a nice, thick piece of ribbon and glue it to the back.

You could make it have someone's name and put all kinds of things on it to decorate it I.E a tiara for a girl or a football or even flowers and stones. On this one, I was tempted to put white rhinestones and/or a green/black/cream flower. It's all up to personal taste.

If you would like me to make one for you, shoot me a message on Facebook (for my friends) or email me at Crafty_Orange@yahoo.com

<3 Crafty Orange