As you will learn in this class slide mounts are a wonderful

Flip Board Class by Melissa Baldwin Adapted from a live online class I will be showing you how to create these very beautiful and useful altered Flip-Boards. I made one of these for my wonderful Mother in-law who does a lot of volunteer work at her church. The clipboard is of course perfect for project sign-ups, and the spiral notebook is great for taking notes. The outside of the notebook has places to slide in business cards, and receipts and such. The matching pen is just icing on the cake!
Supply List; brown clipboard spiral notebook with the spiral at the top of the notebook, approx. the same size as your clipboard. Yes paste glue or a thick white glue of some sort. Pattern paper or cardstock - assorted patterns, whatever suits your fancy. ribbon RSVP pen micro beads regular size beads to embellish the clipboard and pen larger size jump rings rubber stamps and inks Other embellishments that you think will match your theme and colors Modge Podge
	Let's first make a template for the clip board. We need to know how much to cut out to go around the clip at the top. A scrap piece of copy paper is fine for this.
Center your paper on the clip board and right next to where the clip is attached to the board. Mark the outside edges with a pen or pencil.
	Cut along your marked lines and then I "guess-at-mate" how much to cut out, and keep checking it until you get the correct fit.
Perfect fit!
	Now transfer your measurements to the piece of pattern paper you would like to cover your clip board with.
Use our large corner rounder to round off the edges of your paper to mimic the round edges of the clip board.
	Just check once more the fit.
Now is a great time to stamp your pattern paper. I like to use the Jet Black StazOn ink pad over the heavy pattern on this paper so that is shows up. I have used the images from the uppercase Monogram alphabet set and then the verses set to decorate this board.
	Now you will need Modge Podge decoupage medium (glossy or matt finish will work) and a brush.
Slap a nice thick and even coat over the whole board.
	Here is what it should look like.
Now place your stamped pattern paper over the Modge Podge and press down... the side of an ink pad is a handy tool.
	Then you put a layer of Modge Podge over the pattern paper.
It looks milky now but will dry crystal clear with a nice finish. If bubbles or gaps appear while drying, smooth them down.
	Take you spiral bound notebook and measure the width.
Cut pieces of coordinating pattern paper 4" by the width of your notebook. These papers are all from the BasicGrey Fusion collection.
	I cut 7 pieces of the different pattern papers and then fold them in half lengthwise.
Glue the bottom edges together with a bit of glue.
	Play with your papers until you come up with a pattern you like.
Now let's stamp! I used the same stamps and ink on these, that I used on the clip board.
	We can now start attaching the strips to the front of the notebook. You only need to put adhesive along the bottom edge of the paper (not the folded side) so that when completed we can slip photo's, receipts and such inside the folds.
So start with the top and bottom pieces....
	Then fill in with your other folded pieces.
Here it is complete.
	I like to add ribbons along each side so that when things are slipped into the folds they will not fall out the sides. They just get glued down as shown.
And then it can get glued under the cover.
	Here is a photo of Husband as a little boy. Too cute... dontcha love the bow tie?!
We have this great fabric mill near us that sells scraps of trim very cheap... so I have been on a "trim kick" lately! This tassel scrap was the perfect size and color.
	Using O'So sticky will ensure that your fabric trim will not come off.
I wrapped the trim around the cover as well.
	Now we are ready to glue the clip board to the spiral bound notebook. They will be attached together as shown with the spiral at the bottom of the clipboard... this way is stay functional.
You want to apply a nice thick layer of glue over the entire surface of the notebook except the very bottom where the spiral is. I used some white tacky glue here... but Yes! paste glue works better (this happened to be on my desk from another project) Although this worked fine, it has so much moisture in it, and we needed to use so much, that it actually warped some of the paper pages in the notebook. So Yes! glue once again is the perfect choice.
	You want to make sure the clip board and notebook have really good adhesion... so mush it with your hand.
Whala!
	Now let's embellish! I love how the deep rich color of this paper flower looks with my pattern papers, but I want to jazz the flower up a bit with a brad... but first we need to remove the little nubbin in the center of the flower. I first poked a hole.
Then work out the stamen which will leave a hole.
	A perfect place for a decorative brad. This is a funky purple one from our vendor Queen & Co. They have the coolest brads!
A really great adhesive for attaching lumpy embellishments like this flower/brad, are these clear glue dots... very permanent! You just need to remember to place your embellishment onto the glue dot and then lift off. You do not want to touch the glue dot with your fingers or it will lose some of it's sticky-ness. These are also great for gluing buttons.
	Glue the paper flower on top of the clip over where the word "staples" is embedded into the clip.
Now let's make some cool beaded embellishment thingies to add to our clip board and pen. First let me say that I am not experienced at all in making jewelry... which is basically what we are doing. But this kind of thing is easy and fun and have you seen the cool glass and crystal beads that are available now? We have started carrying a nice selection of not only beads, but basic jewelry findings as well, so we can add some "bling" to our projects. So I digress.... you will need some assorted glass/crystal beads, eye pins, wire cutter and jewelry pliers (we sell these as well).
	The first thing you need is an eye pin. You can get a few different styles of these and I happen to have this type on hand with a loop at the end.
Now string your beads onto the eye pin... this is where you can put your own personal style into the project.
	When you are done with that take your jewelry pliers and make a bend at the top of the beads.
You are going to make a small loop at the end that mimics the loop at the other end, so you may need to snip off some of the excess wire.
	Using your jewelry plier complete the loop and then straighten it out. This make takes a little fiddling, but is worth it
Now take your split ring and twist it open... as apposed to spreading it apart. It will be much easier to close if you just twist it.
	Attach the split ring to your dangle.
To attach it to our clip board we will need some of our ball chain (we sell that too!)
	Looks cool hugh?!... sparkly and just another layer that gives it some sophistication.
Now let's make a matching pen! A super duper easy way to make a beaded pen is to purchase a RSVP brand pen manufactured by Pentel and fill it with the tiny micro beads that we sell.
	You can create your own beautiful bead mixes by combining the different colors of micro beads. Here I have mixed opaque rose, black, gold, and clear beads.
To get the beads inside the RSVP pens you first need to take off the end cap, but leave the actual ink part inside the pen. Then use our small funnel (these are hard to find!) place it over the end of the pen and pour in your beads to the top.
	You know I can't stop there! To further embellish the pen we are going to add another beaded wire just like the one we added to the clip board. First knot a length of ribbon to the cap of the pen... I added a glue dot to make sure it would stay in place.
Then add a split ring to the knotted ribbon.
	And then add the dangle. OOooooo so pretty!
Here is the completed project... clip board side
	Notebook side
Here is another one I made... this was a larger size clip board and notebook. I made these as Christmas gifts for friends family members this year and each one was different.
	Here is the notebook side. I used paper flowers instead and ribbon instead of the trim.
Here is another version, again with more BasicGrey pattern cardstock... I can't get enough of this paper! I stamped along the left and bottom of the board with the harlequin image and a saying. Of course I made a matching pen again.
	Here is the beaded and be-ribbon clip.
Another beaded pen... translucent brown beads fill the barrel of the pen and a combo of clear/copper/blue beads are on the wire.
	Here is the back the notebook side of the clipboard.
The whole idea of a clip board/notebook combo came about when I was trying to design a perfect gift for my wonderful Mother in-law Helen for Christmas. Helen does a lot of volunteer work at our church and uses clip boards quite often for sign up sheets and such. So I needed to think of a way to take the altered clip board further so it would be not only pretty but useful as well.
	Here is the notebook side of the clip board. What you can't see is that it is very sparkly... I applied crystal lacquer to the paper flowers and dipped them into crystal glitter and I also added strips of glitter to some of the fold with O'so sticky tape (from a roll) and glittered that as well. I also made a matching pen but put glitter inside the barrel of the pen instead of the micro beads. I think this was my favorite designs for my favorite Mother in-law!