Thrifty Scrapbook Tips: Chipboard and Acrylic Distress Tutorial

I apologize for today's post being later than usual.

In pasts posts I’ve shared with you some ways that I use the chipboard that I find around my home. It is really easy to find usable chipboard around your home. Toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, boxes from pasta, cereal, crackers, backs of used notebooks, soda packaging, packaging from scrapbook supplies…the list is endless. I have only shown you very few things that can be made with the chipboard you find around your house.

First I showed you a calendar, and then I showed you a notebook holder, and a box made from the packaging from crackers. Today I’m going to show you how to make great coordinating embellishments with chipboard and die cuts or Cricut machines. (Note that if you are using your Cricut machine you’ll want to ensure you have the deep housing blade).

First cut out the shapes you want to use on your project. In this case I created one label from my Cricut, and three from my Top Notes die and Cuttlebug. You can decorate these anyway you choose. You can cover them with pattern paper, ribbon, leave them “naked”…I chose to paint my pieces with Making Memories paints and then used my embossing folders and Cuttlebug to add dimension. As I mentioned, you these are great to use with this simple embossing, but I chose to use a technique to add even more pop to these items.



This is a label cut from the Storybook Cricut cartridge



After selecting a different embossing folder for each of the three Top Notes die cuts, I painted each a different base color: Chocolate, Marine, and Cantaloupe. The next step was to sand the raised images of these with sanding paper. These removed the paint from the raised sections to reveal “naked” chipboard again. This technique is referred to as Acrylic Distress. The last step was to choose a coordinating ink and use the direct to paper technique of running each pad over the embossed image.



I used the label from the Cricut to make the card for today.

Are you thinking about how you'll used your chipboard?  Let me know what you come up with!