Ombre Painted Clipboards {Office Organization Tip}

In the annual reader survey, many of you asked for more cleaning and organizing articles and more things to do with teens. I completely hear you on that and I am always on the hunt for tips to get my life together. The topic is near and dear to my heart for sure! As for projects and crafts to do with teens- I think these clipboards are a fun way to get them ready for back to school.

It is a daily struggle to manage my schedule, the children’s activities and school, my husband’s commitments, household issues and work- all the chaos of a busy family. I am completely and totally in the trenches with you on this and I wanted to share a little change I made a few months ago that has helped to keep me a bit more organized.

I used to have piles of paper all over my office, the mudroom, the kitchen and a few clipboards on my desk that I use for the project I am currently working on. I love clipboards since everything is in one spot and they are easy to grab and take with me around the house. At first I tacked up two clipboards on the wall to manage bank statements/finances and one with an ongoing blog project list. That worked so well I decided to add another with all the papers the kids bring home- forms to fill out, schedules for activities etc.. etc..

And the clipboards have continued to multiply and now I have six of them tacked up on the wall. I love the clipboards because I can keep all my ongoing projects separate and front of mind. I have tried being one of those fabulous paperless people before but for me, if it is out of sight it is out of mind. I really do need a pen and paper in front of me to stay on top of things.

So the clipboards have worked out so nicely and I decided to keep them up on the wall but to make a few little changes to become even more orderly. First I painted the clipboards and then I labeled them to keep everything straight.

Each clipboard has a different topic like “kids” where I keep schedules, reading lists, permission slips or “finances” where I keep checks, bank statements- all the stuff that used to collect on the kitchen counter each day. I can just put one clipboard away and grab another to shift gears quickly.

And to jazz things up a bit I decided to paint the plain, brown clipboards I was using (they were $1.98 each at Target!) Color coding makes them more fun and makes it even easier for me to grab what I need quickly.

To paint the clipboards was so inexpensive and simple:

1. To quickly and easily paint stripes on the clipboard, I just used a thick painter’s tape and fitted it as close to the bottom edge as possible. I put a second piece of painter’s tape up next to that and then a third piece next to that. Then I removed the middle piece of painter’s tape and used that to create a fourth stripe right on top of the third.

Continue up the clipboard until it is covered in stripes. The painter’s tape makes it so easy to get perfect stripes without measuring. Now you can just paint with the color of your choice or I decided to do ombre stripes on mine.

I grabbed some different colors of craft paint from my stash and white paint.

I chose one color and painted the bottom stripe that color. Then to my paint, I added a few drops of white and mixed that together to create a slightly paler shade of blue. I used that for the second stripe. I added more white to each consecutive stripe until reaching the top. This worked out pretty well to create an ombre effect on the clipboards that I love.

I removed the painter’s tape as the paint was about halfway dry and I have pretty crisp lines on all the clipboards. No touch up needed thank goodness.

The last step is labeling each clipboard and to do this I cut the label out with printable gold foil and my Silhouette Cameo machine. Simple! As my needs change, I can just peel that label right off and make it something else.