Cutting Bookboard

The bookboard is larger than my desk!

Late this past autumn I bought several 30x40 sheets of bookboard - a size far too large for me to store in my studio.  I needed to immediately cut them down for flat storage.

I decided to completely cut up a couple of the sheets, and save a couple larger bits for undermined projects.

Without a guillotine, I rely on my trusty ruler and box cutter... at least for the initial cut.  My main goal is just to make one cut that makes it possible for me to use my hand-dandy CARL rotary paper cutter for the rest of the board.

First steps: accurately measuring my sheet length and width, paying attention to the grain of the board, and calculating the best place to make this single cut, as well as the best way to get the most book covers from each sheet.

With an acid-free pen, I mark where I'll be cutting.  I'll use this line as a guide for my ruler, which will guide the box cutter.

Measure twice, cut once!

Before going any further,  I put my cutting mat under my bookboard!

With cutting board in place, I begin!

With a sharp razor, it really only takes a couple slices to make it through the board... without a cutting mat, a nice table or desk can quickly end up with a lot more "character" than one intended.  (Ask me how I know this!)

Once I had two pieces that would fit in CARL, I started cutting down the pieces into my actual book covers.

CARL does the rest!  Well, mostly.

Right now square shapes are most appealing to me, so I cut the board mostly into 6x6 and 7x7 inch squares, with a few landscape rectangles for more traditional guestbooks.

Ready to cover with lovely papers.