DIY Chipboard Shapes (or 'Faux Chipboard')

I've grown partial to chipboard shapes for cards and scrapbook pages lately. They come in various large assortments (from SU! anyway), but what if you want 30 large chipboard photo corners for a scrapbook class? You'd have to order six packs of OnBoard Blossoms and Basics at $15 each. YIKES! And you'd have a whole lot of extra shapes that you'd need to figure out how to use.

This was my dilemma recently. I'm certainly not spending $90 for 30 chipboard photo corners, so I had to come up with another solution. I really didn't want 'flat' photo corners, but.... What if I stacked up four or five punched shapes and glued them together like plywood? That would give me the bulk of chipboard without the expense. All I'd need would be my photo corners punch, a bottle of glue, and three sheets of kraft cardstock.

IT WORKED!

Here's How I did it: First assemble your supplies (I'm using scraps for now), and punch out four identical shapes.

Now apply liquid glue to top of one your pieces. Not too much or it will squish out the sides. Be sure to dab glue in any corners. (I prefer the Tombow Mono Aqua glue over the Tombow Mono Multi for this project. The Aqua dries STIFF and non-tacky, more like chipboard. The Multi remains flexible and sticky.)

Now carefully lay another punched shape on the glue and slide around so that it is exactly on top of the previous shape. Repeat two more times. You'll end up with a thick, rigid shape, very much like chipboard.

What's cool about this is that it works with just about any punch you have (obviously the corner rounder, ticket corner and such won't work).

(Incidentally, I don't plan to glue all 30 photo corners. I plan to put the punched shapes in the kit bag and have each participant glue their own.)

Give it a try!