50 days 'til Christmas!!

I know, it says 51...that's because I took the photo Sunday, and had planned to do this post yesterday, when it *would* have been 51 days until Christmas. But, you know what they say about the best-laid plans... {FYI: Here's a Christmas Countdown webpage}

This is a clipboard that I designed for my MOPS group to make at our second meeting this month! It's a Christmas countdown clipboard, made from a Staples 6" x 9" clipboard. I'll be making a new one before my MOPS meeting, though, since I'll be using this year's 'Ski Slope' dp (this was just a sample so that the steering committee could see what it would look like).
I used Mod Podge to cover the front with two coordinating pieces of DP (I made a template for the top piece, so it is actually fitted around the clip and none of the board shows). After that had dried, I sanded the paper off of the edges with a sanding block for a clean edge, and tied on a piece of red grosgrain where the two pieces meet. I also Mod Podged on 3 trees that I stamped on Old Olive paper and cut out, and Mod Podged paper onto a chipboard circle to cover the 'Staples' on the clip. The whole board got 2 more coats of Mod Podge for durability (before I tied on the ribbon).

The main panel is loose, so that the clipboard can also be used to hold Christmas pics or a favorite card. I printed the 'Days until Christmas' onto Very Vanilla from my computer, and cut it to size, and matted it with Old Olive, after punching all the corners with a ticket corner punch. Then I cut twenty 1 1/2" x 3" strips of River Rock, and stamped the numbers 0-9 on them (so this could count all the way down from 99, if you're *really* anxious for Christmas!)....you have to have an even amount of papers in each pile or they slip out. I ticket-punched opposite corners for each number (see above), and clipped them to the board.

Pretty easy, and so cute!! Here's a couple more close-ups:
The holly leaves and 'berries' are from an On Board garland kit from last year...I painted the leaves with an Adirondack Paint Dabber, and covered the berries with Real Red Craft ink.
All together, I figured out these little boards are going to come out to only $3.80 per board (including the $1.49 per board for the clipboards)!! Isn't that awesome? I love economical crafts! *smiles*

Thanks for stopping by today!
~Michelle

Supplies used:
Paper: Dashing DP, River Rock, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla CS (SU!)
Ink: Stazon Timber Brown (Tsukineko); Old Olive Classic and Real Red Craft (SU!)
Stamps: Ornamental Alphabet (Martha Stewart Crafts); Giggle Grove (Unity Stamp Company)
Other: Mod Podge decoupage medium; 'Lettuce' Adirondack Paint Dabber (Ranger Industries); On Board chipboard elements, ticket corner punch, Real Red grosgrain (SU!); E6000 cement