Customized Chipboard Binder Tutorial

Hope everyone's having a great holiday. So far I've done two layouts and put this tutorial together. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my daily card. That's next on the to-do list.

So, here we go.

I was thinking about how everyday items can be repurposed and I had some old binders laying around. This one is a mini-binder (8.75 h x 7.25 w)So, I decided to open one up and see what was inside. First, I cut the binder apart.

Oh look, it's chipboard! Hmm, what can I do with chipboard? What do I have laying around? Mmmm SIS Shabby Rockstar gaffer tape and some fabric paper. Super cool. I can make a chipboard binder with a customized spine. Rad.

Let's strip this puppy down.It was a little harder to get the vinyl off from around the metal binding. I just cut around with my Xacto. (geez I need a manicure) So next step, I set aside the vinyl and lay out the "naked" chipboard pieces.
Then I got a strip of the SIS gaffer tape and laid it against the binder piece. The strip just be about an inch longer than your binder and centered, so a half inch hangs off of each side.

Next, I smoothed the tape down with a popsicle stick (cuz I couldn't reach under the metal thing)

Then bring the middle piece over and lay it under the tape. When you place it, make sure there is a small gap between the pieces, so it will open and close properly. (it needs to flex)

Fold the extra tape over the ends like this.

Then do the same thing with the piece that will be the cover of the binder.

Then I laid another piece of tape in the middle to cover up the bare place so it looked like one big panel. I flipped it over and covered the back side of the spine with gaffer tape, using a popsicle stick to smooth everything that was hard to reach.

Here is the finished binder:Let's see what you can come up with! Email me or comment on this post so I can see your lurvely creations also.

Please email me with any questions and thanks for looking!