Happy Thursday! Kim (tgmousechick) here to bring you Thursday’s Renew-It Hybrid tutorial- we’ll be recycling chipboard to make nifty mini albums.
Chipboard is HUGE in hybrid and paper scrapping right now. Chipboard mini albums are being offered by many of the most popular manufacturers, including Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket (my personal fave), and Maya Road. Also, chipboard embellishments are also widely available in a multitude of shapes and themes.
What’s not to love about chipboard? It’s a wonderfully sturdy and versatile surface- great for a stable base for paper and cardstock pages, and easy to paint, ink, and distress. Chipboard elements pop right off the page!
However, these are days when I’m trying to mind my pocketbook a bit better, and saving my spending for goodies I absolutely can’t live without. Chipboard is one of those embellishments that makes it easy to be thrifty and environmentally friendly at the same time, since it’s in lots of places. The project I’ll show you today can be made from recycled chipboard- harvested from the backs of notebooks or packaging.
The first project is a mini album. I’d love to take credit for this idea, but credit goes to my friend AngieS. She arrived at a book club meeting I hosted a few weeks back with this great album- and every bit of it was made from paper and scraps she had in her stash, and the chipboard sheets used to protect patterned paper during shipment. So, I’m scraplifting her idea to make a photo/autograph book with a Disney theme.
You don’t need any fancy tools for this project, except for a paper trimmer. A Crop-A-Dile tool (or it’s beefier sibling, the Big Bite) is also useful to have on hand to punch binding holes. My album is 6″x6″ (15cm x 15cm), and cut from a 12″x12.5″ sheet of chipboard.
Next I’ll plan my pages. Your hybrid options are endless here- from making full digital pages and printing them out as 6×6 pages, to printing out out blank sheets of patterned paper and building the page IRL, to anywhere in between. For this project, I used kits by ScrapMatters’ resident Disney Goddess, Britt-ish Designs.
I resized my pages to 6×6, printed, and trimmed them. I then adhered them to the chipboard bases. I added my usual embellishments of ribbon, flowers, and brads. One twist on this album was adding slash pockets to a few of the pages, as a place to hold signed tags.
Slash pockets are super easy! Simply cut a right triangle of paper or cardstock, and add adhesive to the sides that form the right angle. I usually reinforce the corners with a brad to help the adhesive hold.
This is a super easy project to remember an event! The pockets can be used to hold ticket, small papers, and other goodies!
I chose to bind this album with binder rings, which can be found in office supply stores. They are inexpensive, and allow for easy expansion should you want to add more pages. Plus, binder rings look great when embellished with ribbon!
Since this is a Hybrid ReNEW it week, we have our friend Donna Sangwin, director of Recreate with a few words on working with recycled chipboard:
“Hi All – Donna from reCREATE here.
I have been visiting schools and talking to them about the environment – and the amount of trash that we generate as a country is mind boggling. Did you know:
- Each year, Americans trash enough office paper to build a 12-foot wall from Los Angeles to New York City.
- Americans toss out enough paper & plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times. (Source: Clean Air Council)
Kimberly has some amazing eye candy mini albums for you to check out. Would you like to add some transparent pages to your book? Ask your local school or Kinko’s for excess lamination (the stuff they trim off after it goes through the machine. )
Chip board is pretty easy to come by. If you want a quick way to make a mini-album, check out the drink coasters next time you visit Chili’s restaurant (or a local drinking establishment!). They are just the right size, are precut, and have rounded edges.
I got some delicious soft peppermints from Trader Joes in the past that come in a perfect round tin to hold a mini album. The “label” is only on the top and bottom – so it is super easy to decorate.
My challenge for this week is to find a tin – Altoids or any small previously used tin – and integrate it into your mini album project. I can’t wait to see what you some up with!”
One note on chipboard coasters- they are so much fun! However, my husband has come to hate them, as now he can’t take me to a restaurant without me stuffing a handful in my purse! He was mortified a couple of weeks ago when I asked the server for a few extra coasters! But Honey, they were a really cute 3″x5″ size! Also, for those of you now on the hunt, Cheeseburger in Paradise has some excellent round ones…
A few projects in the gallery using chipboard coasters:
http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/4489/ppuser/99- my “It’s a Girl Thing” Coaster album (to answer a question in the comments- this album was bound with a Bind-It-All binding system by Zutter- it’s a luxury item but so much fun!)
http://www.scrapmatters.com/gallery3/showphoto.php/photo/9943- Kari’s Boo Box from Hybrid Holidays last week
Considering how common it is to come across chipboard, I hope you are inspired to try a quick hybrid project!
Happy Scrapping!
