It’s FINALLY my turn to write Theory Thursday and I’m TOTALLY excited!! I’ve been anxious to show you guys my little Mother’s Day gift hybrid project since I finished it!! Ok – let’s get to it!!

This is how I made my chipboard albums!

Supplies Needed:

- TIME! I did this project over the span of 4 evenings. It’s not a quickie!!
- Digi-Scrapped Pages – Printed Out
- Chipboard Album
- Modge Podge (I use Matte finish) or the adhesive of your choice
- Sponge Paint Brush
- Paper Cutter

Option Supplies for further embellishment:

- Adhesive for embellishments (I just used hot glue)
- Ribbons
- Flowers
- Buttons
- Gems
- any other embellies you’d like

First thing I did was take a trip to the local craft/scrapbook store (Robert’s Craft). Chipboard albums were slim pickin’s but I didn’t have time to order them online. I think this chipboard album trend is slowly getting to the stores. Luckily I bought the last two of these 5×7 spiral bound alums by 7gypsies. (I also bought, by ribbons, gems, and flowers).

Then I scrapped all my pages! Since I was making two books, I decided to save time and keep the design pretty much the same for both books but just swap out the photos as needed. I decided to make my books about our most recent trip to Disneyland (BOTH moms attended).

Once my digi-scrapping was done it was time to PRINT. Now, I don’t have a nice printer at home so my only option is taking it to a print shop. There’s a shop in town called Alphagraphics and they do a brilliant job. They like it when I “pre-mount” which means you arrange your digi-pages on and 11×17 sheet and save it as a PDF, which is what I did. The next morning I picked up my sheets and I was ready to go.

I cut out each page carefully with my paper cutter. Then I gathered all my supplies together, and started the process.

I carefully pulled apart the spiral binding and separated all my pages. Then each page (1 at a time) got a coat of Modge Podge and a scrapbook page. I had to be organized and careful not to glue any on out of order or upside-down. I started at the beginning of the book and carefully did all the fronts. Then went back and did all the backs. (I only worked on one book at a time to avoid confusion).

Some helpful tips:

- Once the page is down, don’t try and pull it back up again. You can push and pull it a little to adjust it, but the more you mess with it, the worse its going to get.
- Take your time and smoothly lay your papers down. I used the side of my hand as a squeegee to try and avoid bubbles.
- BUT bubbles happen. Don’t freak out! Once we’re done they don’t look too bad.

Then once both fronts and backs were glued down it was time for the worst part of the project – in my opinion.

SANDING!!

Now, you don’t HAVE to sand your edges. BUT if you take the time and do this your edges will be more sealed. PLUS you get that cool distressed edge. And your page edges aren’t going to lift.

Tips for Sanding:

- Use the appropriate gague (??) of sandpaper. Too fine will take too long, but too coarse will rip your pages up.
- DO take the time to trim the excess paper off with a craft knife or even scissors. Don’t just try and sand it all off. It’s not impossible, but it wastes a lot of time!
- Next time Im going to buy one of those sanding blocks they sell at the scrapbooking store.
- Put on a TV show or movie while you do this and the time will go by faster. It’s a long process.
- Don’t zone out too much cuz you have to be careful not to scratch your photos.
- BUT scratches happen. I ended up with a lot of them! It’s not the end of the world.
- It’s WAY messy. Be prepared for it.

Sanding completed. Look how nice and distressed we’re looking. (but also noticed the scratches! OOPS – but its ok it really didn’t look bad in the end)

OK – next thing I did was seal each page with a top coat of Modge Podge. Some people skip this step. I guess because they don’t like the look of a sealed over page. BUT for me I wanted these books to last! A top coat will seal your work, protect from finger prints and whatnot.

I painted the Modge Podge over one side of the pages and left it to dry overnight. Then painted the other side the next day.

Once the pages were REALLY dry, I reassembled the book.

Now for the FUN PART!! I fired up the old hot glue gun and went to town! Almost every page got a little sumthin’. Flowers, buttons, gems, it really made the book start to look fab.

Then the ribbons. Both mom’s went ga-ga over the ribbons!! I wasn’t stingy, I tied a LOT of ribbons to my binding to make it look really fun. Sometimes I tied two at the same time, sometimes just one. Just play and see what you like. I just tied a simple knot and pulled tight (a double knot was too bulky).

And then I was done!! It was a lot of work but I really did have fun! I want to make myself one now!

And just to prove that I DID in fact make TWO of these suckers . . .

If you want to see the whole inside of my mom’s album, you can check that out HERE (sorry, they aren’t GREAT photos. The last photos in the set are of all the pages. Click “All Sizes” to see them nice and big).

Hope this helped inspire/motivate you to try one of these chipboard albums. I’m not going to lie and say it was easy and quick. It was time intensive and a little harder than I expected. BUT it was totally worth it. And now that I’ve done it, I know my next one will be easier!!

Hybrid is so fun!! And a little addicting I must say!!

Have a great day!!

xoxo,