Decorating Chipboard Shapes for Scrapbooks

Chipboard is a wonderfully versatile product, whether it comes as a chipboard album, chipboard embellishments and die cuts, or chipboard shapes that you cut yourself fusing pieces of book board or other similar product.

Chipboard embellishments can be decorated in so many ways. If you can think it, you can probably do it when it comes to this product.

Possibilities include covering your chipboard with paper, cardstock, fabric, foil, net or even photographs. Alternatively, you can color it with paint, stamping inks, marking pencils, colored pens, pastels, decorator chalks, glazes, crackle or almost anything else that leaves a color.

Trims can include stamped images, stickers, rub-ons, beads, wires, ribbon, fibre, tags, charms, metal embellishments, hand writing, glitter and so on

You can also sand chipboard and punch or drill holes in it -- allowing you to attach tags, charms, sewing, wire,beading or other trims.

Naturally, chipboard shapes, letters and die cuts can be used in other paper craft projects as well as scrapbooks. You can use them for greeting cards, altered books, altered art, or for other projects.

Chipboard is a type of paper product. Traditionally, chipboard was made by gluing wood particles together, under heat and pressure. Today, chipboard could be made by pressing paper together, usually reclaimed paper.

It is not necessarily acid free or lignon free, although some manufacturers are now making this product specifically for the scrapbook industry.

If you do not have chipboard, or if acid free and lignon free is not a requirement, you can often substitute mat board of the type used for matting pictures.

Money Saving Tip: If you are making this for a project that doesn't require heritage care -- that is, you don't need it to be acid free or lignon free, you can often make do by simply cutting up pizza boxes or cereal boxes. You can cut these into shapes using die cutters like the Big Shot with dies of your choice.

The mini book to the right features a chipboard embellishment on its cover. The store-bought flourish started life as dull brown chipboard.

I painted it an ivory color using acrylic craft paint. When the paint was dry, I punched a small hole in the center, then I smeared the flourish with watermark ink (i.e. Versamark) and then sprinkled with clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE). I heated with a heat gun until the UTEE melted, then sprinkled another layer or two and reheated. I repeated this a few times until I had a smooth, glossy finish.

I completed the project by placing a pearl brad, using the hole that I punched initially.