Completed "FAMILY" Chipboard album
I finished off this project over the weekend. This was my first attempt at one of those really cute chipboard word albums. I have to say that for a first attempt I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Here is a pic of the cover and you can click for more pics and the list of supplies and a walk-through!
Here are the rest of the pics, and then a list of supplies and a walk-through for anybody who would like a quick tutorial - my style!
Where to begin? The first thing that I did was buy the little "FAMILY" album at Robert's. You can find them at a lot of the hobby stores and scrapbook stores with the chipboard things. Do a search for "chipboard word albums" if you are shopping online. There are a lot of different words available or you can make your own with blank chipboard. (O.o . . . I haven't even begun to think about trying this yet. . . )
I should explain here, that the chipboard word album is NOT a quick project that can be done in one day or even in a weekend, unless you are super man. :D The whole project took about a week or so of working at it - the longest part was being patient while the paper glued to the chipboard, and the sanding of the edges seemed to take f.o.r.e.v.e.r!
I chose a theme for the album. I wanted to make an album for my mother-in-law about our summer camping adventures. Since she loves camping and cowboy-ish things I chose a lot of denim and fabric patterns and western themed things, and I found some really fun camping and ATV related stickers and embelishments.
The first step was to measure the paper and cut it into 6" strips. Actually, about 1/16 bigger than 6" so I could be sure to cover all of the chipboard. I glued the paper to the chipboard using a generous amount of acid free photo mounting glue-stick. I glued all of the "front" sides first, and left them to dry for a few hours under a pile of heavy books. This kept them flat while drying - and also keeps the paper from wrinkling. It really helped to make sure that the glue was really dry before moving to the next step - finishing the edges!!!
After the "front" sides were done, I went around the edges with an exacto knife. The final step of making the paper "fit" the chipboard exactly was to use a dremel tool with a sanding bit. I went around all of the edges and gave them a "roughed up" look - but the tool also gets rid of any extra bits of paper that you don't want on the chipboard and makes the edges very even.
I repeated this with the "back" sides of the chipboard, matching the paper so that the sides facing each other had the same paper.
While the chipboard pages were drying I used photoshop and planned what photos I would like on each page. I began to plan what embelishments I wanted with each photo. I measured the pages and photos to get a good fit for each page, and then printed them out on photo paper.
The last steps went pretty quickly - mounting the photos and layering with cardstock and adding the stickers and other embelishments. The final step was to add the rivet brads to the holes for binding the album, and the ribbons for tying on the little ATV charms.
I might have also added even MORE ribbon and even some silk flowers, but MIL is just not a flowery, frilly kind of lady, and I think that this album suits her personallity just as it is. I hope that she loves it. :)
Here is a list of supplies:
Daisy Hill Stickers - for the fabric tag looking stickers
Jolee's boutique - for the dimensional camping and ATV stickers
Rusty Pickle - "Git Er Dun" stickers for the quote block stickers
The cute charms and ATV embelishments are by Karen Foster Design
The denim paper is by Flair Design Inc.
The ATV paper is by Karen Foster Design
The bandana and boot pattern paper is by Rusty Pickle
The rivets are Scrapbook Interiors and do you think that I can find them any more??? Noooo. . . they are ancient and I think not available any more. . . they were one of my very favorite embelishments and I used the rest of them to complete this project. Yike!
That is all - I am no expert at the chipboard album project, but I learned a lot along the way and if anybody is undertaking this project for the first time and you need a hand, just let me know and I will be glad to help if I can. :)