Wild Card Wednesday :Chipboard Photo Book

I won the challenge so here you go!! Thanks for letting me share my idea I loved creating it.

Okay let me explain how this idea came to be. Every month over here at Talented Terrace Girls we have a challenge where we are given an item and told to “create” something AMAZING! Well this month we were given chipboard. After much deliberation I decided to make a photobook! I have always wanted to create one from scratch but was always a little intimidated until NOW!

Supplies: chipboard, scrapbooking paper, pictures, scissors, glue (mod podge or elmers), embelishments (ribbon, brads, clips, stickers, etc…)

First cut your chipboard to 4”x 4”. I cut 16 pieces and used 2 of those for my covers. If you have a husband who lays carpet like me then you can find a cool knife to cut your boards with ease.

Now cut some paper you will use for binding the book, you will need 1 less then the number of pages you have. I have 14 pages so I cut 13 binding strips. This paper can be seen or unseen. I choose to leave mine seen so I didn’t clog up the page centers. I picked my solid colored paper and cut it to 4”x 2”. Now fold it in half length wise (hotdog style) with the pretty sides facing each other (kissing). 

Now take 2 pages and 1 binding strip. Glue the strip onto the 2 pages so it opens like a book. The paper fold will face out leaving 1” pretty inside each page.  Continue to glue all your pages together using your binding strip in between each page. Make sure to keep them as straight and flush as possible to create a more precise book.Once they are all glued together I added a thick layer of glue to the back of the binding to give it a little extra strength.

Now the cover! Take a large sheet of scrapbook paper lay it pretty side down, white side up. Then place both your front and back cover on the paper. But wait.. what is the little skinny piece in the picture?? The spine of your book of course! To make the spine cut a 4” piece then place the binding side of your book on the 4” piece and measure or trace the width of your spine. Cut it out and placein between your covers. Leave a little space between your chipboard so you have moveablitiy, allowing you to open and close your book. Now glue your cover and spine to the paper leave a 1” paper excess on each side. Now cute the corners of the paper off (the little green triangle).  Now get ready to wrap your book cover! You are going to fold and glue each side down making crisp corners.

Your cover should look like this on the inside.

Next cut 2 pieces of paper 4”x 8”  This is the inside page that is attaching your cover and pages together. Fold this paper in half (hamburger) so you have a 4” square on each side of the fold. Cover your first page of the book with glue, then place the 8”x4” paper onto the front page. You need to have the fold match up with the binding side. Let dry for a minute so it won’t shift on you. Then put glue on the inside cover and attach the other half of the 8”x4” paper to the cover.  This paper is what holds your cover and pages together. You wont be adding glue to the spine.If you want to tie some ribbon onto the spine of the cover now is the time. Next attach the back cover. TADA!! You have assembled your book.

Now cut and decorate the pages! I cut my main page paper 4”x 3.5” this left a little of my binding color showing on each page. After I attached the main page paper I scuffed it with a little brown ink to give the distressed look.

Let me explain the use of my book-One of the family traditions I grew up with was….Christmas morning pictures on the stairs! Now mind you this picture was before we got to open our stockings and while we were still wearing our new jammies from Christmas Eve. But this pic is from Christmas eve (it will be removed later) I may have printed the wrong pic and the ones from the stairs i printed 4x6 zoomed in so they can't be cropped meaning they can't fit. I plan on printing them as wallets and then they will fit PERFECT!!.  Lets just say mom has a ton of these Christmas morning pictures so this book is going to be our yearly  Christmas morning pictures 

                                                               Here is the cover completed!

This is a look at all the fun paper I used.

I love my little book and can’t wait to make more for gifts or even a fun little book for my kids representing each of their school years! I even have a pack of school paper i can't wait to use!!!   




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