My Idea Binder...

For a long time I have been collecting cute ideas and little notes on things I'd like to make but usually they are on little slips of paper or on random pages in some notebook or another... and they inevitably get lost... (have I mentioned that although I am a type A person I'm very unorganized)

Well a while ago I started working on my "Idea Binder" to try to keep it all together, however I hated how it turned out...

I tried to do a modge podge type of covering but I really hated it!

So instead I figured I would cover it with fabric...

I grabbed a pillow case that I had picked up at Dollerama to try to make a pillow case dress for Delaney and well just never got around to. 

I cut it down the seams and then cut it down to fit my binder. 

I sewed a button on the front of the fabric so I could keep it closed. 

Then I glued the fabric with hot glue to the corners first... 

(I trimmed the corners so it would help them lay flat once the rest of the fabric was glued down)

Then I glued down the rest of the edges, pulling tight at each edge to be sure that it wasn't bunched or buckled on the other side. 

(while I did this I hot glued a piece of ribbon to the opposite side of the button so I could wind it around the button to keep it closed but you could also put in a piece of stretchy cord in a loop so it just goes around the button once and keeps it tighter)

I then took some of the left over fabric and sewed two layers of it together on the edges to create a pocket.

I then hot glued the edges of each of those pieces to a piece of cardboard and hot glued them in place on either side of the three center rings.

Then it came to dividing the sections...

I made these dividers the first time I tried to pretty up the binder.

They were made by cutting down a few pieces of cardboard and modge podging some scrapbook paper, tissue paper and tissue to the cardboard. (the Zebra is my favorite! Not only because its ZEBRA but also because it was made from the tissues I had on our wedding day!)

Then I wanted a few sub-dividers as I wanted to be able to use one section only for blog ideas...

I cut down a Pizza box into the shapes I wanted... 

Then I covered them with scrap booking paper of my choice, I just used a regular glue stick to glue the paper to the dividers then cut the paper down and punched the holes and popped them into the binder.

And after all that it was done!

I love the pattern on the fabric and it does exactly what I need... 

Keeps all my notes in one place!