The Easiest DIY Clipboard

As we all know, picture frames can sometimes be crazy expensive.  So when my friend Katy and I began talking about wall decor ideas for our friend Ashley’s budget-friendly woodland themed nursery, we just knew traditional picture frames wouldn’t make the cut.  Katy and I racked our brains to come up with an alternative solution for displaying artwork in said nursery.

Enter:  A super duper easy and budget-friendly DIY clipboard!

For this project, I made a trip over to Home Depot and purchased an 8 foot 1×12 piece of pine board for under ten bucks.  I then had the board cut to 13 inch pieces, leaving me with six boards (and an one other longer board that I’m sure I’ll put to good use sometime in the future).  We were only planning on using four boards, but I wanted to have extra boards on hand for if we decided to use more printables or if I ended up messing up on one of the boards…which is usually the case…

*nervous laughter*

Trial and error, people.  Trial.and.error.

Anyhoo, I also ended up purchasing some Minwax (walnut) Stain and used foam brushes to apply the stain to the boards.  Ugh, and let me tell you – I kept waiting for this Michigan weather to warm up past the thirty degree mark, alas, it never did.  I ended up staining the boards in twenty degree weather…with a bit of wind and flurries here and there.  It was not the best staining weather, to say the least, and I was scared the boards wouldn’t look right or that they wouldn’t dry all the way.

Fortunately, after setting them out in the sun for a few hours, then moving them inside the garage for a couple of days, they eventually dried completely and turned out just as I had hoped.

Phew.

I just looooved how every board ended up looking completely different from one another.  Oh wood grain and stain, I heart you.

These clips you see below are from Hobby Lobby.

It took me quite some time to find exactly what I was looking for, just ask my friend, Sara.  She was my shopping buddy the day of the “clipboard clip shopping mission.”  These bad boys were ultimately found over in one of the scrapbook sections.

I forgot to pick up matching screws, but lucky for me that hunk-of-a-husband-of-mine needed to make a trip to Home Depot for something else, so he picked up some screws for me, as well.

What a guy, eh?  😉

The day of the nursery makeover, my friend Jake attached teeth to the back of the boards (which I tooooootally should have done – oops!) and viola!

Easy, simple and affordable DIY clipboards!

I had purchased the wall art here and I printed every photo off onto white card stock.

Within seconds of hanging up each sheet we had ourselves a beautiful rustic artwork display!

You guys, this project was sooooo easy and affordable to make, and not to mention fast…well other than the drying time for the stain!  Ha!  Silly me for staining in the middle of a Michigan winter.

#lessonlearned

This project could be so cool on a much larger scale, too!  I may have to attempt it.


How big?  I have no idea.  What would I display?  Who knows.  Will I wait for fifty degree weather next time?  You betcha.  Ha! 😉

Marie 🙂

I’m linking up over at the Totally Terrific Tuesday – I’m a little late to the par-tay!