Twelve Scallop Chipboard Book

There is just something about the dollar bins at many stores - so many irresistible items that you know you can use to make some great projects. There are spools of ribbon, stamps and small chipboard album sets that appear from time to time. It is easy to spend a lot of money in no time at all.



Back in February I found these albums and decided to try to make a .cut file to make it easier to cover them. Here is a LINK to the post. I know a lot of people were happy to use the file to speed up their album making. Several people asked if I could do files for other albums they found, but, without having the actual chipboard to work from, I didn't want to make files that "almost" worked.



Recently, I came across this version of the scalloped circle chipboard album - it is made by the same company but has twelve scallops instead of eight. The packaging is slightly different with a blue top instead of a black one.



Here you can see the difference between the two chipboard shapes. The book with eight scallops looks like a flower and the twelve scallop version is more of a circle.



Here is a photo of the finished eight scallop album that I made in February.



I made this file as an adjustable file so you can copy and paste and resize it to suit your other projects. I found that my chipboard book was just under six inches - five and 15/16 inches to be exact - so I made the original scalloped circle in the file that size. As you can see in the screen shot above, this file will be useful for many other projects since you can easily resize the shape and have graduated circles.



It took a while to work it all out, but once I got the file finished I was able to cut out all of these pages in less than five minutes.



I used some paper in muted shades for the first test cuts but I decided it was too "serious" looking for the flower shaped books.



I remembered that I had this pack of Debbie Mumm paper. I have always liked her designs - in fact, I have a stash of Debbie Mumm quilting fabric that is "too pretty to use"!.



This paper has bright designs and I thought it would be nice for a child's album.



Here are the five papers I chose for the album. The little bugs are so cute!



Since you need to have the Expression to cut these shapes at the proper size to cover the album pages, I used Plantin Schoolbook for the file. You can fit two shapes on a 12 x 12 page and there will be some paper left for mats and titles to coordinate for each album page.



For more information about how I put the album together you can look back at the post for the first album (here is that LINK again). I hope that many of you will be able to use this file - even if you don't have this chipboard album, scalloped circles are always useful!

Twelve Scallop Circle for Chipboard Album (A)

Remember the Chipboard Albums.....?

I imagine you all think I forgot about my promise to share an interesting way to decorate the chipboard flower albums after they are papered. I didn't really forget, but there were other things that kept popping up that pushed that information aside. (If you missed the post about the Chipboard albums, here is a LINK).

So, at last, here is the interesting thing I noticed. I try to be neat when I am crafting, but I get so involved in making things that I don't always tidy up after each project. Usually there are lots of random bits sitting on my table from previous projects - right now there are a lot of the medallions that I have been making and sharing. (to find the posts for these check the "cartridges used - topics" in the side column - click medallions for all of the medallion posts and links to the files).

If you think about the way I designed those medallions, you will see where this is going (!). The chipboard flower albums have eight "petals" and the medallions are eight sided designs as well. This means that they will work very nicely on the Chipboard flower pages.

Here are a few examples:







When you cut the medallions be sure to save all of the offcuts - these are also useful for making some very dramatic and beautiful patterns.







I noticed that this butterfly paper has a butterfly very similar to the Martha Stewart "monarch butterfly" punch - you can see a punched sample in the center below.











I am just fascinated by all of these medallions and the effects that can be obtained by combining them and by using the offcuts creatively. Here are a few more examples - the possibilities are limitless!













You may need to adjust the sizes from my original designs to get exactly the effect you are looking for - just change the original element to the desired size, check weld and then copy and paste it three times changing the rotation to 45, 90 and -45 degrees.

I'll show you another chipboard album soon - and I'd love to see any that you have covered using my flower file.

Chipboard Flower Book - made a bit easier....

The burn on my hand is somewhat better but it was slow going today - sorry it took so long but here is "part one" of the project I have been working on.



These chipboard albums have shown up recently in the dollar bins at Michael's - they may be available in other stores too. They are made by Colorbok. I have a hard time resisting items in dollar bins, so of course I picked some up.

I got them home and thought - now how do I cover these with pretty paper? I think sometimes people adhere paper that is close to the correct size and then trim at the edges - but that sounded like a lot of work to do for every album.

I decided to invest some time and effort in making a cut file to fit these particular albums - it did take a long time to do, but now I can quickly and easily cut nearly perfectly sized patterned and cardstock papers to cover the books.



First, I needed some pretty paper - something young and happy! I just picked up this 8 x 8 stack on sale this weekend for $2.99 and thought the papers would work nicely.



Above is the selection of papers I chose - I had some DCWV textured cardstock on hand in colors that coordinated so I decided to make the book with one side patterned and one side solid.



Here you can see another colorway from the same stack - I may try this next.



I measured carefully and started arranging the small circles around a larger circle. I did this using individual elements and placing them in fixed positions. It took several test cuts on "ugly" paper, but finally I got a result I was happy with.



I set up the file to cut the shape in the center of an 8 x 8 paper on the Expression. The flower is a bit too large to fit on the baby bug mat - the design would extend into the "uncuttable" area.



I thought the offcuts could be used for page frames or layouts on larger 12 x 12 pages.



Here are my ten cuts ready to adhere to the chipboard (this was the sneak preview photo yesterday).



I figured out a order for the patterned papers on the fronts...



and the solid colors on the backs,



I used binder clips to temporarily keep the correct pairs together.



I had read about "Zip Dry" glue and that it was recommended for adhering paper to chipboard books by others who make these regularly. I bought some a while ago (when I had a 50% coupon and everything else was on sale!) and found it in my stash so I was ready to assemble the book.



The directions said to apply the adhesive in a thin bead along the edges - here you can see my first attempt. The glue dries quickly so you need to work fast. I aligned the cut paper on the shape - you have a bit of time to slide it into position if you are a slightly off center with your placement. Remember - the books could have a bit of variation in size and the calibration of your machine may also make slight differences in the exact fit.



I wanted to be sure the paper was well adhered so I also used my brayer to help stick the paper down smoothly.



Once the paper is adhered to one side you need to remember to punch the hole before the second side totally covers it.



I used my Crop-a-dile - the 3/16th size seems perfect for this particular book (you can use a regular hand held office hole puncher - just try to find the matching size).



When you cover the opposite side of the book you will be able to see the hole and punch again to get the hole smooth on each side.

Below are the completed pages of the album - front....



...and back.



The edges of the pages show the chipboard and the layers of paper on either side. You could leave these like this but I wanted to try for a more "finished" look.



To smooth the edges and apply ink I used some tools from the beauty supply store - a sanding block (I assume it is meant to be used for nails) and some makeup sponges.



Below you can see the plain edge...



and the edge after inking. It is tricky to get into the deep indents between petals.



I wasn't sure about the inking - I haven't done much of this - and I decided to experiment with different colors.



Here are the five inks I tried - I kept a sponge for each color so I can use these again for another project.



The first color I tried was a dark brown - it is tricky to get the controlled smudgy look for the edges but I thought this wasn't too bad for a first try.



Here you can see the patterned paper on the opposite side after inking.



I tried different colors on the various pages - I think the darker colors work better for the edges but I need to be more careful so the pages look a bit neater.



Above you can see the five solid pages after inking and below are the patterned pages after inking.



These albums are held together with a plain office supply ring - rather boring....



So I looked through my ribbons for colors that would coordinate with the papers.



I tried to find a variety of styles and colors.



I tied the ribbons around the ring in a random order. Above you can see the back side of the album pages and below is a photo of the front side.



The albums are fairly uniform but you may find that a page is slightly "off" - minor adjustments can be made after adhering the paper by using the sanding block on the edges before inking.



I could have left well enough alone with the fixed file since the album comes in just the one size - but I got to thinking.... wouldn't it be nice to use the the same shape to decorate the book. Also, it would be nice to be able to copy and paste the design and to move it around on the mat to cut the most shapes with the least waste.

So, I spent some time reworking the file to make it adjustable (keeping all of the elements in the same selection box). It is frustrating to do this - the process of nudging all of the pieces into place takes quite a while and you lose the ability to place elements in precise, mathematically determined positions by entering values in the Shape Properties box.

I have done several tutorials about how to make adjustable designs and they can be found by checking the labels in the side column. In the file I went ahead and added a page for each inch increment to save you a bit of time. You may notice that the values in the Shape Properties box are not exact inch sizes. I kept the various cuts in the exact proportion of the original six inch one that fits the album.



Here is my test cut of the concentric shapes still on the mat.



Above, you can see the cuts after the outer offcut was removed and below with some of the individual shapes removed..



These can be used to frame the pages or a smaller photo or sentiment on one of the pages.



You can even use these shapes for some other project.

If you are cutting just the full pages to cover the book you will probably want to copy and paste the shape from the first page of the file and place it on the 12 x 12 paper in a position which enables you to add a second cut on the same 12 x 12 page. Unfortunately, you will only be able to cut two per sheet of paper but you will be able to use the coordinating offcuts to decorate the book.



Tomorrow I will post some more photos and a surprising idea for some additional cuts to use in this book as you embellish it.

Template for Chipboard Flower (A)