Chipboard 101
Using Chipboard as an Embellishment in Scrapbooking Projects
Learn five easy ways to dress up chipboard and incorporate it into your scrapbooking and paper crafting projects.
Chipboard is a versatile product that can be used to give your scrapbook or paper crafting products dimension and depth. It can be used in sheets to give your project stiffness, or can be cut into an infinite variety of shapes, letters, words, or symbols.
What is Chipboard?
Chipboard by definition is a thin, cardboard material made from chipped and pressed waste wood and paper products along with a binder material. Chipboard is frequently found in packaging, and is used as a stiffener on the backs of notepads. Chipboard is available in many thicknesses, from thin flimsy sheets to thick stiff sheets.
How Can Chipboard be Used in Scrapbooking?
Chipboard can be purchased in sheets and cut to size, or purchased pre-cut into a variety of shapes. Use rectangles to mat photos, or use chipboard letters to create eye-popping layout titles. Many scrapbooking product manufacturers make die-cut chipboard alphabets and shapes that can easily be added to a project. The company Making Memories produces a wide range of alphabets in different fonts. Maya Road produces chipboard shapes, such as flowers, swirls, and frames that come as sets in reusable tins. Fancy Pants makes some very large chipboard sets, which are fun to use as layout focal points.
How Can Chipboard Be Dressed Up?
Chipboard has a natural recycled paper look, similar to the inside of a cereal box, which is actually also chipboard. "Naked" chipboard does provide a great look on some layouts, but there is so much that can be done to chipboard to dress it up, that it can be considered the "little black dress" of scrapbooking. Here are a few easy techniques that can be applied to chipboard in any form or shape, whether it is scrolls, frames, or letters.
- Adhere paper or cardstock to the front of a piece of chipboard. Cut away the excess with an Exacto knife, and use a piece of sandpaper or an emery board to even the edges of the paper. (Learn more about this technique by reading the article Altering Chipboard with Paper.)
- Coat the chipboard with a thin layer of acrylic paint and let dry.
- Use an ink pad to color the chipboard piece.
- Stamp shapes with ink or paint onto the chipboard.
- Apply a thin layer of adhesive to the front of the chipboard and cover with glitter.
Some of these techniques can be layered, such as first covering the chipboard with paper, then stamping designs on the top of the paper.
Chipboard is a versatile product that can be used to embellish, give dimension and dress up scrapbooking and paper crafting projects.
