For the past few weeks, I have been doing a deep dive into corrugated cardboard. I've figured out how to work with it and what I can make from it and I have to say I am so glad I did. I came up with a ton of ideas and I'm going to share them with you.
Separating Corrugated Cardboard Layers
Once you learn how to separate the cardboard elements, you will start to understand how incredibly versatile it is:
- Take a sheet of cardboard and hold it under hot water with the spray hitting the corrugation as shown above.
- With your fingers, gently encourage one side of paper to come unglued from the corrugation.
- Run the water back and forth so the whole top edged is detached. Then continue until the whole sheet of paper slips off.
- Lay the pieces flat to dry.
Here's a video that explains the process, if you have any questions: Video
Note: some of the projects below have you take just one side of the paper off. Others have you take both pieces off.
The paper you take off is incredible! It's rough and textured, and it has lines! In the photo above, you can see the lines. They are the marks from where the glue was attached, and they make great writing paper. So fun!
Here are some projects I came up with.
Button Closures
These sweet closures are made from corrugated cardboard (NOT separated at all). I took a 5/8 inch hole punch and made the circles out of very thin (less than1/16 inch)corrugated cardboard. Then I poked a hole in the center and attached the circles to the envelopes with a brad. I tied a string around the top circle and wrapped the thread around the bottom to close.
These sweet journaling cards are made from the lined paper I got after the separation. I covered the back with a picture and used the lined side to journal on.
This journaling card was made the same way
The corrugated cardboard in the cluster above had BOTH pieces of paper removed. That enables the corrugation to flatten a bit so I could sew it into the cluster to add great texture.
If you want even more inspiration, here's the second video I made on the subject: Video2