I so love the new chipboard letters and shapes, however, always felt that they were way too expensive and once you bought a set, they did not match everything that I needed, I had letters left over, but needed other ones much more.....

Now, I just make my own chipboard letters the easy way with left over scrap paper and the cardboard pieces that are in so many packages and usually get thrown out.

Just glue your desired piece of patterned or even basic colored paper on a piece of cardboard and then either use your Sizzix machine (larger scrapbook stores mostly offer the free use also if you do not have your own machine) with the desired font punch out and start punching out your letters as you need them.

If you do not have the chance of using the Sizzix machine you can also use a template of the letter you would like to end up with and draw around it on your paper. Then just cut your shape out with some sharp scissors.

With this method I can end up with cheap but gorgeous chipboard pieces that exactly match my project and on top of that find good use for little pieces of scrap paper that otherwise would end up in the trash.....