It is often said that the best gift is one that is made by oneself. If we are talking about a product using the scrapbooking technique, then this statement is absolutely true. Unusual and beautiful, and, most importantly, unique man-made photo albums, notebooks, postcards and photo frames will not leave anyone indifferent.
Varieties
One of the main materials for scrapbooking is cardboard. Currently, in specialized stores a wide selection of cardboard with various characteristics is presented, suitable for various types of work. The main indicators that you should focus on when choosing a material are its density, thickness and flexibility.
Beer
This type of material got its name because it is often used for coasters for beer mugs. Usually it is white, its density is 570 g / sq. m., and the thickness is from 1.2 to 2 mm. The disadvantage of this material is that it is extruded, that is, consists of many thin sheets, and therefore can be delaminated by a large amount of glue. The ideal area of application for beer cardboard is the pages of photo albums.
Using it, you should not load pages with a large number of volumetric elements, otherwise they may break.
Bookbinding
This is a brown-gray, unbleached cardboard for making hard covers of books and notebooks. Its density is very high - 950-2000 g / sq. m., thickness - from 1.25 to 3 mm. It is quite durable and very heavy, therefore from it is recommended to produce only covers and individual parts of products.
Bookbinding cardboard even of medium density is very difficult to cut, and it is better to use a special cutter for this, but it does not delaminate like a beer house and does not deoxidize with a large amount of glue.
Photocardboard
This type of multilayer cardboard was invented in Germany, hence its excellent quality. The range is represented by a wide color spectrum, a wide variety of textures and artistic motifs. It can be white, monophonic color, with various ornaments, drawings and photographs.
For scrapbooking usually use cardboard with a density of 250 g / sq. m. Due to the small thickness, flexibility and large size of the sheet (usually 50x70 cm), it is convenient to use it for making appliqués, origami, photo frames, postcards, photo album pages.
Photocardboard is often called cardstock or designer cardboard.
Chrome ersatz
This material is made from production waste: wood sawdust, shavings, waste paper, unbleached pulp. Often he has an uncoated coating. The density is quite low - 220-520 g / sq. m., thickness - from 0.3 to 0.7 mm. It is widely used for packaging small, lightweight products, as well as when creating gift boxes, “mother’s treasures” boxes and photo frames.
Corrugated cardboard
This material consists of several layers - the inner corrugated layer (wavy) and the outer flat layers. It is used for the manufacture of various boxes. It is very voluminous and less dense than the material that is usually used in scrapbooking, moreover, it is easily deformed.
Usually it is not recommended to use it, since the edges are difficult to decorate, but sometimes such cardboard is used to create special photo albums.
What can be replaced?
Sometimes situations arise when it is not possible to use special beer cardboard for work. In such cases, experienced craftswomen advise replacing it with cardboard from candy boxes or shoe boxes. Also, a suitable dense material is often used for packaging office equipment, children's toys, large puzzles and more.
Of course, such options are suitable when the material is needed for the manufacture of the cover, and in the future it is supposed to be sheathed with cloth or pasted with something. Sometimes scrapbooking cardboard is replaced with a simple material for children's applications or a Whatman paper.
How to make at home?
For the manufacture of designer cardboard by decoupage (or tissue technology) requires a minimum of materials and 10 minutes of time, and the result is a whole sheet of material with the desired pattern and interesting texture.
To work, you will need:
- cardboard (beer, white cardstock or simple for applications);
- colored paper towel;
- film for products;
- iron;
- scissors.
The paper towel is gently smoothed with an iron and the upper color layer is separated. A plastic wrap is glued onto the cardboard, a napkin is put on it and ironed with a hot iron (it is recommended to put the “cotton” mode or three-piece).
Particular attention should be paid to the edges and corners, where it is good to hold the iron for 3-4 seconds. The resulting product is unwrapped and carefully cut off the excess film and paper, then ironed again from the front and the wrong side. Thus, even at home, you can get designer cardboard, without making almost any effort.
See scrapbooking cardboard overview in the video below.
