Articles : Tutorials - Digital

My attempts at chipboard

proof that people like me should stick to digi.

As a paper scrapper, I'm not into techniques.

I don't own any paint.
I have some stamps, but pitifully few pads of ink.
I don't have a heat embossing tool.
I don't have a sewing machine.
No die-cutters grace my small scrap space.

You can see, then, why stepping into digital scrapbooking wasn't such a stretch for me -- it's not like I was leaving anything behind. I move seamlessly between the two worlds, with no problems other than perpetually (and not deliberate!) crooked lines on my paper pages.

But I’d heard a lot about chipboard, and I kept seeing chipboard stars that I wanted to try -- not so much to try the chipboard, but because I loved the shape of the stars.

So I got my chipboard stars in the mail, opened the package, and started wondering what to do with them. I remembered reading that you can double your chipboard supply by separating each piece into two. I grabbed a star and started pulling. I pulled the star in half, but not the way I was hoping to. After ruining that piece, I tried again with another -- this time I was successful in splitting the shape, but was confused at the result. The torn side was jagged and uneven, and some grain-like pieces were falling out. Hmm.

Not one to give up easily, I pushed foward. I had an almost completed layout I wanted to use the chipboard on, so I picked out four small stars.

I didn't have much adhesive to choose from -- I'm a double-sided tape kinda girl -- but I figured I might as well dive in and see what would happen. Last month I bought a few new kinds of adhesive, just because I was bored and thought maybe I should branch out.

First I thought maybe my new Aqua liquid glue would work. I spread some on a few chipboards stars, then placed the stars on the back side of some patterned paper. After I thumbed through my paper stash to find one more piece of paper for a star, I checked on my glued stars -- the Aqua glue had seeped through, and the paper looked like it had grease stains. Desperate to salvage my chipboard (I was NOT going to throw another piece away!) I started tearing it away from the grease-stained paper. Some pieces stuck to my table, and others were stuck to my hands.

As I bumped a stack of supplies to the floor while shaking my hands furiously, I had a flashback to a few months ago when, in an effort to put a Buzz Lightyear Christmas ornament back together, I super-glued a tiny Buzz hand to my index finger.

I should mention that I'm really not into sticky hands. Or objects sticking to my hands.

Next, I tried Glue Lines. This should have been straight-forward – cut a length of Glue Lines to work with, attach an area to part of a chipboard star, trim where it overlaps, and repeat. But that didn't work, either. The Glue Lines kept sticking to my scissors. When I tried to remove it from my scissors, a large part of the Glue Line stretched (because it was also stuck to my fingers), and then snapped into a ball. Can't really use a ball of Glue Lines for anything, can I. So I abandoned that idea, too.

I figured I should just go with my trusty fall-back adhesive, Mod Podge. Painting glue onto a surface, I can handle. I have experience with it. Years of experience. We did this in second grade, folks. I especially enjoyed the barrier of a paint brush between the glue and my fingers, and the knowledge that it washes off easily with soap and water.

After the Mod Podge dried, I had to figure out how to liberate the stars from the big areas of patterned paper each was attached to. I'd read directions in a scrapbook magazine that said I could “simply trim around the chipboard shape.” I tried this, but it didn’t work, either. First, I cut a corner off of one star ('doh!). The others, I just couldn't get the inner edges of the cuts to meet. No matter how I angled my hands and my scissors (really, I have the good ones!), it wasn't working. Finally I gave up -- I cut them as close as I could, then turned the stars over and pulled the paper down to tear it. Luckily, the tears aren't that noticeable, and it almost looks like I knew what I was doing.

After attaching the stars to my layout with more Mod Podge and outlining each star with a white Galaxy marker for contrast, I was done. I had tried something new, and was pretty proud of myself. I liked the way those stars looked -- but not enough to do it again.

I don't think I'll be revisiting chipboard in the near future. I'm just not that committed to the crafty, hands-on part of scrapbooking -- especially when I can duplicate the effect on my computer. Below are some examples of chipboard shape sets that can be bought from digital designers. Dragging and dropping a digital file onto a layout is much safer for someone like me anyway.

  
  

While some scrappers function quite well with the complicated and tricky hands-on stuff, I’ll freely admit that I can’t. And that’s ok. One of the best benefits of digital scrapbooking is that it saves those of us who are sloppy, clumsy, and can't judge straight lines with a ruler. That alone is worth the cost of Photoshop to me.

Happy Scrapping!!!

P.S.  here are links for the examples I showed:
Dani Mogstad Get the Point Arrows
Dani Mogstad Sweet Hearts
Christy Lyle Cardboard Shapes & Tags
Gina Miller Chip Classics Hearts and Stars
Microferk Designs Chipboard Elements
Dani B Messy Chipboard Alphas

About the author ...
Jen Strange is mama to Jake, a full-time secretary, part-time piano teacher, and obsessive scrapbooker (since her son's birth in 2002.) An avid blogger since 2004, her DigiScrappin' with Jen blog serves as an introduction to digital scrapbooking, while her Stop Piracy blog is a centralized spot for learning about and fighting the piracy of digital scrapbook kits and designs. Jen has been digitally scrapbooking since April 2005; find Jen at www.jenstrange.com and Layouts by the Numbers

Submitted by strangejen