Fifty pieces of plain chipboard to cut, 50 pieces of chipboard, slice one up; paste it in place, 49 pieces of chipboard to cut.
Not exactly bottles of beer, but you get the picture.
I was recently gifted with several dozen pieces of plain chipboard, and now I am desperately looking for ways to slice and dice them into works of art which I can use to make my scrapbook layouts pop.
If you are an avid scrapbooker, then you know how expensive premade chipboard accents cost. The high price is just one of the reasons I refuse to waste the plain chipboard sheets. Some of the pieces are from large scrapbooking paper packs that sandwich sheets of chipboard between individual pieces of papers in order to prevent wrinkling. Another source of plain chipboard includes notebooks that feature chipboard backs. If you are planning to use these frugal means of acquiring chipboard, be sure to test the material before placing it in your scrapbook. Not all chipboard is acid-free and you don’t want to compromise your photos and memorabilia just because you are trying to save a few bucks on chipboard embellishments.
After I tested my chipboard collection I headed straight to my neighbor’s house to borrow her die cut machine. Personally, I think using a Cricut is one of the fastest and easiest ways to cut sheets of chipboard. What’s more, the machine allows you to design a litany of different shaped embellishments that can enhance your layouts. If you use the machine, be sure to press down as hard as you can so you get an even cut on thick pieces of chipboard. For those of you who don’t have a die cut machine, you could opt to slice your chipboard with a craft knife. The Internet is teeming with sites that offer free templates that you can use to cut-out flowers, letters, hearts, and butterflies from your chipboard sheets. Once you create your chipboard design, you can decorate it with paint, chalk, ink, stamps, stickers or rub-ons.