Project Organization...

Thursdays are Project day over on the Splitcoast- Unity forum and since I needed a new moving organizational binder I volunteered to create this week's project. The following is a copy of my post over there...

WARNING: This is a project based upon your love of your supplies…

I will let you all in on a little secret….I LOVE office supplies. When I was little and we would go to the store, my brothers would go to the toy section and I would go to the school supply section. I love that stuff (which makes you wonder why I am not more organized?!?)

Obviously, I am a bit fanatical about stamping and papercrafts too so today’s project is a perfect place to combine these two loves. Today we are making an organizational binder.

You will need:
*7x9 loose leaf binder (holds 5 ½ x 8 ½ paper) with clear pockets on the cover
*favorite stamps
*favorite papers

supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Create Yourself Single

*Unity Stamp Company Flirty Flowers kit

*American Crafts paper

*Bazzill scalloped paper

*Making Memories journaling paper

*Circle punches

*StazOn Black ink

*Heidi Swapp bling

Do you have papers that you can’t stand to think about cutting into them because you don’t want to waste them? It’s time to get them out for this project. The beauty of this project is that this is an organizer that will last you for a long time. As such, you will get to lovingly look at those papers every day that you use it which means that you actually will use it more just because you like to look at it.

For the Life on this, I used my water-based marker to color it and to separate it from the Beautiful in the sentiment.

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Company Beautiful Life

*Unity Stamp Company Greatest of Friends

*Unity Stamp Company LilyPad Playland

*MME paper (red)

*Daisy D's paper

*Making Memories journaling block

*Heidi Swapp Journaling spots

*StazOn Timber Brown

*Prima daffodil

*flatbacked gem

*Marvy Uchida scallop punches

Making the Cover:
For the cover of this book, you will need a base that is just a hair smaller than 7x9 so that it will easily slide into the front cover. (You may want to measure your cover just to be sure that it is the same size as mine.) You can decorate this any way that you desire. Just be sure that you don’t get very dimensional as that will prohibit the cover from sliding into the pocket.

The Dividers:
There are lots of things that you can do on the insides of these books. You can make dividers very simply. I have two different ways that I have made mine.

One, I took my favorite papers and cut them to 9x12 and scored them down the middle (so that when they are folded in half they measure 6x9.) I adhered the two sides together and rounded the corners. This is a great method when the papers that you want to use are one sided.

Two, I cut my favorite two-sided papers into 4x6 pieces and rounded the outside corners. These, I centered in my book so that they had 2 holes punch in them for the 3-ring binder and staggered them from top to bottom in my various sections.

Pocket divider:
You can also use the two sided papers to make pocket dividers. Simply cut and score your piece the same way as the first style of divider. After it is scored, cut one side from the score line to the outside edge (about 3” above the bottom) at an angle and fold. You now have your pocket…you can either sew the bottom and side of the pocket or use an adhesive to form the pocket.

Bookmarks:
If you are keeping your organizer as some sort of daily project, then it may be useful to have a bookmark that you can move throughout your book. Simply make a bookmark as you would for any other project, but be sure that it is 9” tall so that it will stick above your papers.

Filler pages:
You can buy filler notebook paper for these binders, but for a more inexpensive solution, you can simply cut your printer paper in half and hole-punch it. This makes for great sketch paper.

Here is a link to a download that Creating Keepsakes has made for printing your own creative organizer papers. My green and blue organizer is made to support these papers and you can see a glimpse of them on my divider photo. Simply print them up double-sided, cut them in half, and hole punch them and you are ready to go.

Handy hint:
Most three hole-punches are made where you can move the holes. Set yours up for ease of use for this smaller binder. Just be sure to switch it back before you set it back on the shelf or you will be very unhappy next time you use it.

Smiles,

Christi