Simple Gifts

Recently my daughter had pictures taken of her 3 month old baby boy, Dustin. I was along, of course, as I like to help pay for the photos. Little Dustin was so cooperative and it seemed like every picture was a “keeper”. As usual, I went a little overboard choosing pictures. Once the pictures were distributed to all the relatives we still had a bunch of wallet photos left. I turned to my Inspiration to come up with a way to use those cute little wallet photos.

Since I had just finished a tutorial on cutting chipboard, I naturally thought about ways to use chipboard to make a simple gift for my mother, Dustin’s great-grandma. I used colored and brown chipboard, printed paper and an inexpensive pocket legal pad from the dollar store to make this cute notepad for her. It really was a quick gift that I know she will love.

I am amazed at how well the Inspiration cuts even the thickest chipboard. The chipboard I used for the project was about 0.032” thick which is about the thickness of a credit card. I taped the chipboard to my mat and made sure I had a sharp blade. I followed the suggested blade length and pressure found in the Inspiration Cutting Guide. (Download it below.) I set my pressure at 35 and started with a blade length of 3. Then, I left the mat in the cutter and changed my blade length to 4.5 leaving the pressure at 35. I pressed the REPEAT button (I love the repeat button!) and cut the second pass. It only took two passes to cut the chipboard cleanly and completely.

I used printed paper to cover the chipboard rectangles. The apple, leaf and letter A are cut from colored chipboard by Robin’s Nest. (Hint: You could make this project even faster if you used colored chipboard for the entire project like the letter block shown here.)

Be sure to watch the chipboard tutorial; it will give you some guidelines for determining chipboard thickness. You will learn how to cut the thickest chipboard by increasing blade length and using that wonderful repeat button. Also snag the instructions for the Apple Notepad Cover below. I am sure there is a grandma in your life that would love a simple gift like this.

cutting-chipboard

Chipboard is a thick material used in a variety of craft projects. The Inspiration can cut chipboard up to 0.072” think (approx 2mm). This tutorial will give you guidelines for recognizing some of the common chipboard thicknesses. You will also learn what blade length and pressure you will need to use to cut chipboard.