Monday Make It....{Re}Purposed Binder

This weeks Monday Challenge is to re-purpose an item that was headed to the trash or recyle bin. 

I had a small binder I was going to throw away.  It was sticky and had scribbled pen marks on it.  I decided to turn it into an address book.  Ideally I would love all my phone numbers and addresses to be stored in my cellphone...but that always ends up biting me in the you know where.  They never seem to transfer to a new phone...and I end up having to start over.  Solution: a permanent copy for our kitchen bookshelf.

originally was going to make a calendar...went a different way instead

First you need to cut apart your binder.  This is actually pretty easy to do using an exacto knife or a pair of scissors. 

slice on the seams

Next get to strippin'.  The binder!  Take all the plastic off the binder pieces.  Trickiest part is under the binder clips...use an exacto knife to slide in there and slice from the fastener to the edge.  You should be able to tear the piece off now.


Nekkid as my friend Fairymo would say.

 I have a favorite pair of jeans that had holes in the knees.  I turned them into shorts and saved the legs.  This is what I wanted to use to cover my binder.  Enter Modge Podge (cuz I can't sew very well).  ***To add a little structure to the seams I first adhered the three pieces to a piece of cardstock. (Just at the spine and part of the front and back cover). 

Cut straight much???

I covered the insides with pieces of jean too...in hind sight I should have used the clean cut fabric interfacing and my silhouette for a nicer edge...oh well...live and learn.
Ta da........love it!  Had to include the tear that came with the jeans because those tears are expensive!

That hole added about 10 bucks to the cost of these jeans.

Rest of the book was finished with some For the Record papers and cardstock stickers by Echo Park.  Dividers are a Silhouette download that I resized for my needs.  I also included a page at the very beginning for web addresses too.  Easy Peasy.  Gonna be tearing off the ugly plastic covers on all my binders now!

web addresses page

cardstock dividers reinforced with pretty paper.

Thanks for looking...leave a link in the comments if you have a repurposed item to share.

Scraplifting, Scrapping and Scrap Happy!

Since getting my Scrap Cave cleaned and reorganized, I have been able to get four layouts done. Wow, amazing what a clean space can do for your mojo! The first three layouts are for a Scraplift Me Challenge I am hosting on facebook.

This layout was scraplifted from one I saw on Technique Tuesday. I used Fancy Pants Designs It's Your Day Collection. Love these pictures of Josh ever so daintily eating his birthday cake. I was really expecting a mess. Nope.

From 2011-01-08

The next two, I scraplifted from layouts I found on scrapbook.com (which I can not find again to give proper credit).

From 2011-01-08

I used Echo Park Little Boy Collection for this layout. And a stamp by Unity.

From 2011-01-08

I used a variety of papers by Making Memories.

This last one was inspired by a layout created by Ingvild Bolme (because I could never hope to actually have the talent to scraplift her amazing work). You can view her layout here. She does truly stunning work.
My humble version.
I can never make that cluttered embellishment look work for me...I tend to lean towards the simpler look. I did stitch around the dotted page. Most edges have been distressed and inked. I absolutely love this photo of Josh. I used Basic Grey Basics for this layout.

From 2011-01-08

Thanks for looking. And there is still time to leave a comment over HERE for a chance to win a scrap kit.