Binder Cover Tutorial

I love a cute binder! I mean who really wants to carry around one of those plain old plastic ones? I know I know I don't. I've dabbled with making covers before but this one takes the cake!

1.Gather Supplies:

• 1/2 yard of fabric or 2 fat quarters would work as well. 
• 4 feet of wide rick rack
• 13 inches of  3" wide lace
• About 4 feet of ribbon or double fold binding, width of your choice. I used 1/2 inch. 
• Optional: 1/2 inch wide elastic. 1-3 feet. 

2. Lay out open binder on fabric. Cut around binder with just enough for a seam. This is the outer piece.

3. Lay out closed binder on fabric. Cut 2 with enough for a seam. These are the inner pieces.

4. Take the inner pieces. Hem the edges that will lay right along the rings. I just serged mine.

5. If you want a pen or a notepad holder take your elastic and place and sew down your elastic on your inner pieces. 

For pens

For a notepad. I used 2 pieces to help keep it in place

6. Take your outer piece, center and sew down the lace. 

7. Pin and sew down the rick rack to the upper and lower edges of your outer piece. Sew straight down the center. This will help later on.

8. Sew your outer piece to your inner pieces just along the side edges. 

9. Take binding and cut off as much as you want for a tie. I used 43 inches. Center and mark off where you want it to attach. Now sew along the edges of just the part that will be used as the tie. And then pin and sew it to your cover. Mine is centered but I think it could look really good off centered as well. 

10. Now it's time to sew the top and bottom seams. Making sure you are centered on your rick rack. Easiest way is to do so is to follow the stitching that you did to attach the rick rack.

11. Turn the cover right side out and fold it in half with the inside facing out. Now fold you binder inside out and slide your cover on.

12. Now load up your binder and enjoy!

Doesn't that planner just look perfect in this! 

Hope you like it. If you have any questions please ask. 

Diaper Bag

I love this diaper bag! It's huge, has tons of pockets and actually holds all baby's and my things very easily. This tutorial isn't for the beginner but looks much more daunting than it really is. Once you get through it once it seems easy. I fully intend on making another one down the road! 

Inside: Divider and lots of pockets.

  I used quilting fabric (from JoAnn's) instead of home decor like the tutorial calls for and just used extra interfacing to make the fabric hold it's shape better. But do make sure you get extra of any fabric that is directional. This is something that any experienced seamstress knows! But this girl in her, at the time, 8 months pregnant brain completely forgot. *facepalm* So I did have to get creative and switch out what pieces I did in what fabric. But personally I think it turned out amazing despite.

Tissue Paper Jar Tutorial

I love these jars! They are so fun and easy to make. And are a great use of those empty food jars instead of filling up those land fills!

Supplies:

• Clean jars, with label removed. If you don't have goo-be-gone (like me) you can run your jar under some warm water to loosen up the glue and any stuck paper left on your jar. With a little elbow grease, some glue will rub right off under the warm water. Others you may need to scrape off with a straight edge knife. But a bit of sticky residue won't hurt this project a bit.
• Mod Podge or other decoupage medium of your choice
• Tissue Paper
• Paint brush
• Scissors
• Paint for lids of jar
• Ribbon (optional)
• Paper for tags (optional)

1.Gather supplies and protect your work area if need be.

2. Paint your lids. I used acrylic craft paint. I recommend using spray paint if you have it because in order to get good coverage with the acrylic I did 2 coats of white and 2 coats of my chosen color and you can my brush strokes. Ick!

Make sure you let each layer dry well between coats or you'll lift the previous layers up as you paint! You don't want this to happen, trust me!!!! When the paint dried I put a coat of Mod Podge to help "seal" it and get rid of the chalky matte finish the acrylic left, but you don't need to. 

3. Decide on the design you want on your jar and get your tissue paper ready. Remember the more layers of tissue paper the more opaque your colors will be.

Jar #1: Pink pockadots

Using one piece of tissue paper, cut a rectangle that big enough to wrap around your jar once. Secure your first edge down, then working around your jar about 1-1.5 inches at a time glue down the paper with the mod podge. When you've gone all the way around cut away any extra tissue paper from the seam and the top and bottom.

Jar #2: Pinks and orange

Tear off approximately 1 inch squares of tissue paper. Don't worry about being exact. Variations in size and shape of pieces are good. You need a minimum of 3 colors could have as many as you can fit on your jar. Start gluing your pieces down. Overlapping your edges just a little. Try to keep from placing 2 of the same color right next to each other. With only 3 colors it's hard to avoid at least having a few pieces touch but don't fret over it. Continue till your jar is covered.

Jar #3: Pink and Green

With scissors cut out squares that are just big enough that when placed on diagonal 2 will fit from top to bottom with a little overlapping at the tips, if you have a taller jar or want a smaller pattern you could do more but 2 worked great for me. Then take your secondary color (green) squares and cut half of them in half to make the triangles that go along the top and bottom. Then glue them down in the diagonal checkerboard pattern you see. Then with the leftover squares cut them into quarters and place one little square of the opposite color (green on pink and pink on green) in the middle of each of the big squares.

4. Coat your decorated jar with a layer of mod podge. This is to assure you have all your tissue paper secured down and to protect it from any moisture they may come into contact with.

5. I made some very simple tags but you could go as fancy as you want. All I did was cut some rectangles from some cardstock. I used my nifty round corner punch for the corners.

Then a simple hole punch to lace the ribbon through, and a calligraphy pen to write my words.

6. When your jar and lids are dry attach your tag with a simple piece of ribbon or yarn and fill your jar!

Easy peazy and they are such a cute way to store those little odds and ends!

Can Organizers

      I'm always in need of more organization and being a bit of an environmentalist and living in an apartment complex that has no recycling pick up I decided to start reusing as many things I can. With the fact that my husband and I eat a lot of canned foods I decided to start there. And here is the first thing I came up with. Can organizers.  These pictures show larger cans but I plan to make several smaller ones as well.

  

 



Supplies:

• Empty and well cleaned can. (I prefer the regular cans that you have to use a opener to open, not the pull tab cans. I don't like the rim left on the pull tab cans.)
• Yarn(s). (Leftover yarn from other projects are wonderful for this project!)
• Hot glue gun
• Beads, buttons, trim, ribbon, rhinestones or any other items you may want to decorate your can with. 

How To: 

1. Gather supplies and heat up your hot glue gun. Make sure you are working on a surface that you won't mind some glue getting on. 
2. Starting at the bottom rim of the can attach the very end of your yarn with a dab of glue.
3. For the first few rows I fully attach the yarn with the glue to keep any pieces from slipping around the edges. Working about an inch at a time to make sure you don't have to reapply glue.
4. After the first few rows are in place continue wrapping the yarn around the can attaching with a small dab of hot glue every 1- 1 1/2 inches. 
5. When you reach the top of the can attach the last few rows just like you did the the first 2. 
6. Remove as much of the hot glue "strings" as you can. 
7. Now attach your decorations. This is a great time to hide any glaring spots of glue that might be peaking threw the yarn or that got on the outside of the yarn.
8. Now fill them up and show them off!

These are so much fun! Do you have a large coffee can? Use it as a mail catcher or for all those takeout menus. What about those small tuna or cat food cans? How about for your jewelry, buttons, beads, or even your keys! Get creative!