Poppyfinch Covered Chipboard Book

The new Poppyfinch paper collection is so lovely. It's soft, spring-y color scheme and muted designs inspired me to create a book for pictures of my Spring garden.

Everyone knows there are myriad chipboard books on the market, but for this project, I wanted to create my own. Call me crazy, but I like taking chipboard and paper and making a book that is completely custom...

I started with nice heavy book board... you can usually buy this by the sheet at your local scrapbooking or stamp store. It will be called either book board or chipboard. You want something with some heft - thin, wobbly cardboard won't cut it for this project. You want something that will make a good, stiff cover and pages for your book.

Begin by cutting the following pieces:

Two cover pieces - 7 1/2 x 8 inches

One spine - 1 x 8 inches

Inner pages: 3 x 8, 4 x 8, 5 x 8, 6 x 8 and 7 x 8 (one of each)

As you can see here, I used a mish mash of chipboards here - some white, some natural. The chipboard will be completely covered, so as long as it's all the same weight, it doesn't matter.

I began by covering the cover pieces. I cut a piece of Time for Tea paper into two 6 x 9 inch pieces.

 

Then, using Beacon's 3 in 1 glue, I glued each large chipboard piece to the back side of the Time for Tea paper so I ended up with a 1/2 inch border showing around the top, right and bottom edges of the chipboard.

When both covers are adhered, I clipped the corners at a 45 degree angle and wrapped the edges.

 

 

I use red liner tape to hold the flaps down...

 

 

Next, I adhered two 3 x 9 inch pieces of Poolside to cover the rest of the covers. Again, you need to adhere the chipboard to the back of the paper, leaving 1/2" of paper around the edges. Notice how the Poolside and the Time for Tea papers overlap by about a half inch...

Clip the corners and wrap the edges around to the back and when you're finished, each cover should look like this:

 

Now it's time to cover the spine.

Cut a piece of Poolside - 6 x 9 inches and score this piece 3/8" from each short side.

Adhere the spine piece of chipboard to the center of the back of this piece. It should sit between the two score lines. Place red liner tape along both short sides and fold the scored flap over so it covers the ends of the chipboard as shown.

 

After you've folded both the top and bottom edges over the spine, cut a piece of Time for Tea that is 1 x 8 inches. Adhere this over the chipboard spine piece.

Now, lay your two covers out on your work surface with the Poolside edges in the middle. Gently fold the side pieces of the spine up as shown. You don't want to score this, as that will weaken the paper and this is the part that holds your cover together. Once you have everything lined up, use red liner tape to adhere the spine piece to each cover, leaving about 1/8" of space between the edge of the spine chipboard and the edge of the covers.  When both cover pieces are connected to the spine, cover the rough edges on the inside of the covers with a 7 7/8 x 7 1/2" piece of Wildflower Garden paper.

Your completed spine and covers should look like this.

Tomorrow we'll cover the pages and on Wednesday we'll embellish the book!

How are you doing on your contest entry? I've started receiving entries and they look so beautiful... You have until March 31st to submit.

Comments

[johanna]

Very cool idea! And nice Starbucks mug! (I have the same one)