make your own custom chipboard alphabets by lauren bergold

Pixie Dust Paperie

presents

"Just Enough Stuff"

by Lauren Bergold

(Day 3)

***

nothing makes your artwork stand out like *CUSTOM* one-of-a-kind embellishments, and making them is easier than you think! here's a super-fun way to make your titles and sentiments shine!

what you'll need: 

1. some thin chipboard--it can even be packaging like this cookie box!

2. scraps of patterned paper or ephemera like this assortment of foreign text papers

3. an adhesive machine (or gluestick) 

4. alphabet dies (or stencils; or text printed from your computer) 

adhere your text paper to your chipboard:

i love my xyron machine because it gives all-over coverage with no need for drying time, but use your favorite adhesive. trim your text+chipboard pieces to the size of your dies and die-cut according to manufacturer instructions. (if you're doing this without dies, trace or stencil your letters on to the back of the chip pieces and cut them by hand.)

finished letters:

(you can see that the printed part of the cookie box doesn't show at all, since that's on the back; so why not recycle all that household cardboard we all throw away each day?!)

i combined the tag and a couple of the letters i cut--plus a little bit of chalk and ribbon--into a quick embellishment that has loads of style... can you believe how quickly it came together? 

other ideas for inexpensive chipboard coverings include: newpapers, (especially the comics!) giftwrap, old dictionaries, pages from the (outdated) phonebook, tissue paper or sewing patterns... if it's thin enough to be diecut, and you can adhere it to chipboard, the sky's the limit!!!

or if you'd like to start out with the finished letters and get right to making that layout, card or collage project, i have some of these alphabet sets for sale in my etsy shop... all of these are made from brand new chipboard covered with a variety of vintage papers, and have 120+ pieces per packet:

vintage sheet music alphabet set

music paper is one of my favorites for all sorts of uses, i think it adds a bit of fun, as in this little card:

foreign text alphabet set

i love the way text looks, and these sets have a fun combo of paper finishes, languages and letter sizes, just right for your next "guy" project, like this birthday card:

vintage maps alphabet set

nothing conveys the idea of exotic places quicker than a map does, imo... these fun colorful letters are perfect for any travel layout or scrapbook:

whether you make your own, try some of mine, or even check out the cool commercial products that are available, i hope you'll think of all the possibilities and have fun with printed alphabets! ♥

***

Pixie April Challenge

"Fly Away With Me"

Click HERE to enter the challenge!