Clipboard Project & Band Camp Day 1

About three years ago I made an attempt of spray painting some old and beat up clipboards black. Let me just say, it was unsuccessful. The paint was streaky, and I ran out of paint. So the clipboards have been living in the garage for the last three years. I had forgotten they were even there - well, until a few days ago. Knowing that I have scrapbook paper, modge podge, and washi tape, I decided to try my hand at a Pinterest project last night (Sunday night) - covering the clipboards with scrapbook paper. I first gathered the materials. It was important to find scrapbook paper that I had multiple sheets of (one sheet for the front and one for the back). 

To get the correct size for each side, I laid the clipboard on the paper and traced the outline of the clipboard on to the paper with a pencil, and then cut with scissors on the traced lines. 

I had already cut this one out and then remembered I should take a picture, so I tried to piece the pieces together for the picture. My apologies for the blurriness.

I then put the excess pieces of paper to the side and painted the modge podge on the paper with a sponge brush and tried to attach it to the clipboard. That didn't work too well, so I painted the modge podge onto the clipboard and tried again - success! Once the paper was on and lined up, I smoothed it out with my fingers and let it dry.  

I repeated the same steps with the other side. I had some problems lining up the edges just right, but I knew that I would be covering the edges with washi tape so it wouldn't matter too much. I actually thought that adding the washi tape to the edges would be a lot easier than it turned out to be - the rounded corners made it pretty difficult to make it look nice. 

Here's the completed back of the first one I did.

And here's the completed front of my first one. The scrapbook paper did not go all the way to the top, but I just made sure the washi tape covered that part. 

Clipboard #2 was probably the most difficult to cover as it looked like a dog bit off some of the corners. I used striped paper and comic book washi tape - it says "Boom, " "Wham," etc. 

Not the prettiest, but still better than what it looked like before I wrapped it. 

Clipboard #3 - the best one yet, but the washi tape still didn't go on straight (mainly just at the bottom). I think I was trying to line it up with the dots not realizing that the dots are not straight. Lol.

Clipboard #4. This one was kind of fun because it didn't have the ordinary clip - it had this square one with an advertisement for some business. So I covered the clip too. The back was different too. I think this is my favorite one. It looks the best to me. I think I finally started to get the corners right. 

Today (Monday, August 12th) is the first day of Summer Band camp. I am in my lunch break right now. The attendance has been pretty good so far. The first hour (9-10) was supposed to be oboes. One of the two Honors Band oboes showed up as well as two of the Honors Band flutes (they showed up an hour early) and one of the Honors Band clarinets (she showed up two hours early). Instead of sending them home or having them sit around for hours, we just worked on the first half of the Concept Sheet (long tones and flow studies). Then the second hour (10-11) was supposed to be flutes. I had three Honors Band flutes, one Symphonic Band flute, and one Symphonic Band clarinet (an hour early). Again, I worked with them on the first half of the Concept Sheet because they were mixed instruments. Then the third hour (11-noon) was clarinets. Four Honors Band clarinetists and two Symphonic Band clarinetists attended. Since it was just clarinets, we did some long tones and then jumped right into the All-District music. We only worked on the first four measures of the first etude and only the first measure of the second etude today. I told all of the kids what their "homework" was tonight, so I hope they practice it tonight and come back tomorrow with that learned and ready to continue to move forward. This year's mantra is going to be all about the process and making progress. I thought of all these "P" words yesterday that are so appropriate. Let's see if I remember correctly...

...With Persistence, Patience, and Perseverance, we will focus on the Process of Playing and Practicing correctly so that we can make Progress and come closer to Perfection each day. I think that's it. :) If not, I like it anyway and in fact, I just wrote it up on the whiteboard:

The next section to meet (at 1:30) was the saxophone section. Three students came. We worked on the top half of the first page of the Concept Sheet and the first few measures of the All-District music. Then three trumpets came at the 2:30 hour and we worked on the Concept Sheet and the first cut of the first All-District etude. For the 3:30 hour, one bassoonist, two trombonists, and two tuba players attended. We only worked on the Concept Sheet. One horn player attended the 4:30 hour. We were able to work on the Concept Sheet and quite a bit of the first All-District etude. Here she is hard at work:

There were only two percussionists who attended their sectional at 5:30. We read and briefly worked on the entire All-District Snare Drum etude and the first part of the Timpani etude. We will work on the Keyboard etude tomorrow.

All in all, I think it was a successful first day of band camp. The kids were all eager to play again. They were making some good sounds too. The best thing was their great attitudes and how polite they were. I'm so looking forward to hearing them all progress over the next couple of weeks.

When I got home at about 7:30 tonight, my amazing husband had dinner made. I am such a lucky girl. I then tried another modge podge project, but it didn't go well. I might try again later. I'm just kind of disappointed.
Here's picture as I started the project:

The paper did not glue very well onto the file folder. I may try again with double-sided tape and then laminate the folder. I think that might work.

This post was completed at 8:58 PM on Monday, August 12th.
Well, until tomorrow...