Altered Clipboard + Inspiration

Okay, I AM just a scrapbooker, but I guess I must admit to playing around a bit with “altered art,” although I still cannot think of anything I do as “art.” I was intrigued by a fellow ATT member’s altered clipboard and decided to try something similar.

Inspired by a book we are studying in our small group, The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg, I have come to love the word “flourish.” Ortberg says that “flourishing means moving toward God’s best version of you” and he contrasts flourishing with languishing (none of us wants to do that!). I love the passage in Psalm 92:12-13: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree….they will flourish in the courts of our God.” So, that was the “theme thought” I had in mind as I bought the $1.99 wooden clipboard and pulled some ideas out of the air.

I removed the metal clamp and primed the front of the clipboard with gesso. After it dried, needing a break from my fall and holiday project colors, I just started grabbing some Distress Ink pads that fit my mood that day (Broken China, Dusty Concord, Wild Honey and Faded Jeans). I just inked as the fancy hit me. After it dried, I pulled out some stamps that fit my thoughts and created a “stamp collage,” using Archival Black Ink for all the stamping.

I cut my theme word, FLOURISH, from cereal box, using the Storybook font, with the Cricut. I then cut the very same letters from a beautiful paper from Tim’s Lost and Found Paper Stash (found one that fit the ink colors I had chosen) and glued them to the cereal box letters. Then I covered all the letters with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint, let dry, and then inked edges with Black Soot. I adhered them to the clipboard with Glossy Accents.

I had fun with the little embellies I attached through the hole in the metal clamp. I had two items to color with Alcohol Inks: the little chain (it was attached to a box of chipboard letters I bought about 4 years ago, and it was light green) and the large pearl bauble (from Tim). I mixed Wild Plum and Denim inks in a little zip-loc bag, to get just the shade of purple I wanted (to match the Dusty Concord distress ink).

I used Cricut Craft Room to weld the letters for the word GROW and then cut from grungeboard (yes, I use the Cricut to cut grungeboard). I then inked it with Dusty Concord, inked the edges with Black Soot, and covered it all with Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint. I added another little bauble I had in my findings. I glued on a flower in keeping with the theme of flourishing and growing.

My little white mini-legal pads that I love to use will fit just right, and I will be taking the clipboard with me to small group tonight!