Make your own custom paint colors to jazz up that plain chipboard...

GCD offers a ton of cute chipboard - in just about any shape you can imagine. Alphabets too!

I think my favorite package is the butterflies, but for this layout, I decided to go with a star.

Gather up your chipboard, white acrylic paint, and some sort of liquid ink. Here I've used a re-inker that goes with one of my ink pads.

Put some paint in a little cup or container and add a few drops of ink. Stir it up with a toothpick or popsicle stick. Start out with a little and see how dark the tint is; you can always add more. Alternatively, you could mix different colors of acrylic paint (yellow + blue to make green), or even mix a color with white (black + white to make gray) - you could even get really creative and add a little glitter!

Using a paintbrush or sponge, cover the chipboard with paint. You may have to add a few coats to get even coverage.

When mine was dry, I felt it still wasn't quite dark enough so I sponged it with some additional ink.

Here's a peek at the chipboard on my finished layout.

For more awesome echniques visit GCD Studios Blog!