Just popping in today to share links to a couple kid-craft articles I’ve done recently for CRAFT.

The first of which is a tutorial for this life-size board game. We had a blast putting this together and playing with it. I got an awesome deal on carpet squares at SCRAP, and everything else (big dice, big game cards) was made from cheap and readily-available materials. K’s sister Jen was kind enough to round me up a couple adorable boys (Logan and Charles, age 7) to play.

(The carpet squares have since been appropriated by Pushkin, who uses them for regal sitting, not gaming.)

Then, I did a piece on zine-making for kids of all ages. It includes some interesting zine projects you can do with young children, grade schoolers, and middle schoolers. I loves me some indie publishing, and to my mind, it’s never too early to get kids making media.

So, there you go. Enjoy!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I get thousands of emails each week, begging me to offer more plastic canvas coverage on this blog.

(…Okay, well – perhaps that actually happens only in my mind. But still.)

I’ve been noodling with these needlepoint pendants lately, and liking both the process and finished product. They make up quickly, and use up odds and ends of embroidery floss. Plastic canvas makes a great base for these, because it adds a “heft” that helps the pieces drape well.

Also, it’s plastic canvas.

But not just any old plastic canvas!

I used 10-count PC for this project, which is a different animal from the bigger 7-count stuff you usually see at your local craft store. (In the photo above, it’s the stuff in the center. The “count” refers to the number of squares per inch, by the way.) 10-count has a finer finish, which takes very nicely to six-strand or pearl cotton embroidery floss.

If you can’t find 10-count canvas locally, you can get it online. It’s great stuff! (If you’re curious, the canvas on the right is 14-count. I’ve made little gift boxes with it.)

…So, to begin your pendant, cut two same-size pieces of canvas. You can make them any size and shape you like. You may have a specific needlepoint design in mind – and in that case, you’d want to count the number of squares you’ll need as you’re cutting the canvas.

Or, you can take my patented lazy approach, and just cut a shape and figure out the needlepoint later.

Then, stitch both pieces. I like to stitch them differently, so my pendants are reversible, but you can also make them identical. I’m using a crewel needle here, because it fits nicely through the canvas holes, and a single strand of pearl cotton. If you’re using six-strand floss, just use all six strands.

I’m using good old Continental stitch and just playing with colors, but remember – there are so many interesting needlepoint stitches in the world! These are tiny blank canvases – so have fun!

(Incidentally, if you want to sew buttons or sequins to your pendant, this is the time to do that, too.)

Now, we’ll stitch the two pieces together. Place them so the right sides are facing out. Thread your needle with a double strand of floss – it provides better coverage at the edges than a single strand.

Pass the needle up through the top layer of canvas only, as shown.

Pull the needle through until you have about 1″ of floss. Lay this between the two pieces of canvas, as shown. Then take your next stitch by passing the needle up through both layers of canvas together.

Repeat this stitch to cover the edges of the canvas. (It’s called a whip stitch, by the way.) As you stitch, catch that tail of floss in your stitches, as shown here.

Stitch your way around the pendant. To fully cover each corner, take three stitches in the corner hole.

When you’ve stitched all the way around the pendant, it’s time to finish off your floss. To do this, pass your needle carefully between the two layers of canvas, and back out the side, as shown here.

Use a pair of needle-nose pliers to pull the needle and floss through. Seriously, you’ll need the pliers. Unless you possess super-human strength.

Clip the excess floss close to the edge of the pendant.

Get a nice, big jump ring, like a 7mm or 8mm. This is the proper way to open a jump ring – you twist it open a bit.

Carefully feed the jump ring through the canvas – pliers are helpful here, too.

If you want your pendant attached to a chain, you can also feed the chain link onto the jump ring now.

Then, close the jump ring. (Here’s how, if you aren’t familiar.)

…And you’re done!

I’m thinking these have some interesting mixed-media possibilities, because you can add buttons and beads easily, or embroider on top of the needlepoint. You could even applique some fabric over the needlepoint. Heck, you could even try stamping or painting over it.

If you make one of these, I’d love to add a photo of it to the CraftyPod Flickr group! Just email me or comment here, won’t you?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Hoo, boy, this little project came out of nowhere! But before I get to the tutorial, a little background…

Here’s how I maximize my office paper use: whenever I have paper I’ve had to print on one side, I fold it in half and use it as scratch paper. I write all my daily to-do lists on these things, and my phone call notes. And usually, there’s an untidy pile of these folded sheets on my desk.

…So I thought: “I should come up with some kind of holder for these!”

I started looking around for something that would form the basis of this holder, and found a 9×12 cardboard mailer in my re-use pile. Perfect!

So first, I wanted to make a pocket, so I could slide the folded sheets into it. I measured the size and drew a cut line on the back of the mailer.

…Then I slid a cutting mat into the mailer, so I’d be able to cut only one layer of it. (You could also use a piece of thick cardboard.)

With that in place, I used a ruler to cut along the cut line with a utility knife. I used light pressure and passed over the cut several times, so I wouldn’t damage any of the rest of the mailer.

From there, it was easy to cut down the center of the back of the mailer…

…And then cut away the excess parts of the back. Now I had a proper pocket, and the makings of a front cover!

I stacked all my folded sheets with the blank side facing out.

Then, I slid my stack of paper into the pocket as a gauge, and then drew two parallel lines, about 1/4″ apart. These form the spine of this book cover.

I gave these lines a good scoring with a bone folder and ruler.

…And then folded on the score lines to form the front cover.

On the back, then, I traced along the edge, and then on the front, I cut along this traced line. That made the front cover match the back cover.

I really should have applied some hand lotion before shooting this tutorial.

All I had to do now was find something good to decorate my cover. Heh! Heh heh heh!

…So I just glued my awesome Mexican chromos to the front, back, and inside panels. You could also fuse some fabric to the cover. Or decoupage. Or rubber stamp. Or frankly, any one of a million other decorative techniques.

Now all my lists are tidy, and I can add and remove pages anytime I want. I can even grab the whole shebang and throw it into my bag if I need to take it with me.

Cool, huh?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

In all seriousness, yesterday was the Best. Day. Ever.

First, I had a new tutorial on CRAFT – and one I was really happy with. As part or their sewing theme this month, I took a bunch of paper grocery sacks, cut them up, and sewed the pieces together in a patchwork. Then I fused some vinyl to the top, so they’d be spillproof, and some felt to the bottom to give them body.

Resulting in… nice placemats! (And, coasters!) The complete how-to is right over here.

Then, I had an article about social media marketing appear on Etsy’s blog, The Storque. This was based on the workshop I taught for I Heart Art last weekend. I’ve been blown away by the great response! (By the way, the image there is by catastone.)

If you want to read this bad-boy, click right here.

And then lastly, it turns out that I freaking won the SCRAP Rebel Craft Rumble! There’s a whole story to tell there, so I’ll give a full account once I can share some pictures.

…Talk about major planetary alignment, though!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

We’re busy this week getting ready for How to Host Your Own Blog, so I thought I’d share some crafty I’ve done for other people lately.

Over on CRAFT, I did this tutorial for an oilcloth garden tool caddy as part of their Bloom garden project series.

…It unfolds to reveal pockets for your tools, and you can use it as a gardening mat! Also, cherries and gingham FTW!

And then for Earth Day, I had this how-to for a recycled newspaper vase in The Oregonian. (For you locals, I used a whole FoodDay circular to make this.)

You can see the tutorial online over here, and get more detail on the reed-rolling process over here.

And while I’m here, I freaking love you guys for your kind responses to my first video blog. Seriously, you rock!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

ACK! Well, I had planned to have a nice, new Easter basket tutorial for you today, but then I lost a couple days to some mystery illness, and now I’m playing catch-up.

So instead, I’ll share tutorials for three Easter baskets I did last year…

This paper basket is based on the traditional woven paper heart. The how-to is over at CRAFT.

Take a look at the pretty version Tethered2Home made!

(Incidentally, have you ever seen what happens when you put Peeps in the microwave?)

These baskets are made of two fabric circles, placed back to back and then dipped in stiffener and formed. You could easily glue in a stiffened ribbon handle. The how-to is over at CraftStylish.

…And this basket is woven from cardboard packaging. Very sturdy, and the graphics add lots of visual texture. You could always paint them, too. The how-to is also over at CraftStylish.

Enjoy! And don’t forget, Craft Social is tomorrow!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

This design showed up in my sketchbook a long time ago, but I resisted making it because I really don’t need another pincushion. But I do have a pretty serious yo-yo habit, and finally broke down when I couldn’t resist playing with my yo-yo maker any longer.

So, this project begins with 6 to 8 yo-yos. I used my beloved Clover Yo-Yo Maker in the 1 3/4″ size. If you prefer to kick it old school, then use Heather Bailey’s gorgeous tutorial for making them from scratch.

Warning! Math-y Bits!

So, let’s figure out some sizing for your pincushion. I promise, being very math-challenged, I’ve tried to keep this part as painless as possible.

Lay your 6 to 8 yo-yos out side by side, and measure the length of this group, as seen here. You can see that my six 1 3/4″ yo-yos measure 10 1/2″.

Now all we have to do is take that 10 1/2″ and find out what size circle it makes. You could use complicated mathematical formulas for this, but for pete’s sake – this is why we have the internet! So go to the Circle Solver Calculator.

The 10 1/2″ we measured earlier will be the circumference of our finished pin cushion. So put that number into the calculator and click the magic button. That’ll give you the diameter of the finished pincushion – 3.34″.

Now, take a deep breath and make some tea. We’re nearly done math-ing.

To make my life easier, I popped into my page layout software and drew up a circle with a 3.34″ diameter. (You could also draw one by hand.) Then, I added a 1/4″ seam allowance all the way around that. (I’ll be using this piece as a pattern to make the base pincushion in a moment.)

Next, you’re going to need one big yo-yo for the top of your pincushion. In fact, you’ll need a yo-yo that’s also 3.34″ in diameter. To get that, cut a circle of fabric that’s twice that diameter, or 6.68″.

I used Heather’s tutorial to make this big yo-yo.

See? When finished, that 6.68″ diameter circle makes a 3.34″ yo-yo. And here ends the math-y bit!

So now, you just need to cut out the pieces for the base pincushion. Use that paper pattern we made earlier to cut two circles – one for the top, and one for the bottom. Then, cut a strip for the sides of the pincushion. It should be 1/2″ taller than your yo-yos, to allow for seam allowance. And make it about an inch longer than the length we measured in Step 1.

(For my pincushion, the strip is 2 1/4″ tall by 11 1/2″ long.)

Okay, so let’s sew this puppy together! Pin the side strip all the way around the edge of one circle, right sides together.

Sew all the way around the circle, using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Then, clip into the seam allowance at intervals, like this. (This helps the curved seam keep a nice, round shape.)

Next, you can sew up that side seam. I added some extra length to the side strip, just to give us some leeway. So, just make the seam wherever the two ends of the fabric meet up against the circle. You want to end up with it looking like this.

Now, pin the second circle to the top edge of the pincushion.

(Dang, guys – I promise to apply some hand lotion before I shoot my next tutorial.)

Sew along the edge of this circle, also with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Leave about a 2″ gap in the seam. Go ahead and clip into the seam allowance as you did before.

Turn the pincushion right side out and stuff it medium-firmly with some fiberfill. Then hand-sew that opening closed. (It’s looking rather cheerful at this point, don’t you think?)

Time to add the yo-yos! Take the big one and place it on top of the pincushion. I like to tack it in place by sticking some pins into it, like this. Just be careful as you’re hand-sewing that you don’t squeeze the pincushion too tightly, or – ouch!

Sew the yo-yo to the pincushion with a tiny whip stitch. I like to use that seam around the edge as my sewing guide.

When you’re done sewing, remove all those pins.

With that done, it’s time to join your small yo-yos together in a strip. Place two yo-yos back to back, matching up all the edges. Then, thread a needle with single thread and tie a knot in the end. Pass that needle through the top yo-yo only, as shown here.

(Incidentally, that will hide the knot beneath the yo-yo. Tricky, eh?)

Whip stitch the two yo-yos together, using only about 6 to 8 stitches. Knot the thread at the back.

Repeat this process to join the rest of the yo-yos until they form one long strip.

Wrap this strip around the side of the pincushion, and tack it in place with pins. (Same warning as before – don’t be squeezing!)

Whip stitch the top and bottom of each yo-yo to the pincushion – again, you can use those seams as a sewing guide.

When I’ve finished stitching one yo-yo down, I just pass the needle through the pincushion and bring it out where I need to start stitching the next yo-yo.

Lastly, stitch the two end yo-yos together at the side. Remove all those pins.

(Man! My hand-sewing starts to look pretty wonky in the macro lens. I assure you, at actual size, it’s much less embarrassing.)

Now, we’ll sew a nice, big button to the top of the pincushion. This helps squish it a bit flatter and give it a cuter shape.

Thread a needle with doubled thread, and tie a nice, big knot in the end. Pass the needle through the pincushion from bottom to top, squishing it a little to help the needle reach through.

Next, thread a button onto the needle. Pass the needle back down through the button, as shown. Make several stitches through the pincushion and button like this, pulling them fairly tight, so the shape of the pincushion gets compressed a bit.

Lastly, tie a nice, secure knot in the thread at the bottom of the pin cushion.

If you make one of these, will you please, please upload a picture to the CraftyPod Flickr Group? I’d love to see it!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I loves me some of those old-school composition books. Last August, our local Fred Meyer had them on sale for 25 cents apiece for back-to-school, and K and I laid in a stock to get us well into our old age.

I’ve been noodling with ways to make them look prettier. There are tons of tutorials on the web for mixed-media treatments, or removable patchwork covers. But I wanted something a little more simple and durable – after all, my notebooks take abuse.

I don’t know why it took me so long to arrive at this dead-simple idea, but here you go.

So first, you’ll need a piece of fabric that’s roughly 1″ larger on all sides than your opened-flat composition book.

This project works best with a woven cotton that’s a little on the thicker side and tightly woven. Quilting cottons are ideal. Do take a moment and see whether the black-and-white composition book cover will show through the fabric – this can happen with light colors especially.

Next, get a sheet of fusible web that’s slightly smaller on all sides than the fabric. You’ll notice that I haven’t gone to too much trouble to cut anything perfectly straight. This tutorial was shot on a Sunday morning. There’s no need to get too exacting about anything on a Sunday morning.

Place the fabric on an ironing board wrong side up. Place the fusible web over the fabric, with the web side facing down.

Your iron should be on high heat with no steam (No steam is really important here.) Pass the hot iron over the paper backing of the fusible web. Keep the iron moving, and make sure you iron over all of the paper – especially out to the edges.

When you’re done ironing, let the fabric and paper cool for a moment.

Gently peel away the paper. See the shiny glue fused to the back of the fabric?

You should end up with a nice, even coat of glue fused to the back of your fabric. If you end up with bare spots, try placing the backing over the fabric again in the same position, and iron over the bare spots again to transfer the glue from the paper to the fabric.

Now, place the fabric on your ironing board with the glue side facing up. Place your composition book over the fabric, like this. Then, close the book, folding the fabric over it.

Take a moment to adjust the placement of the fabric as needed. This is why we made the fabric bigger than the book – so we’d have some leeway for adjustments.

Make sure the fabric is smoothly spread over the cover of the book. Then, iron the fabric to bond it to the cover. Again, keep the iron moving and make sure you iron along all the edges of the cover.

Flip the book over and re-smooth the fabric. Iron the fabric to the back cover.

Lastly, run the iron along the spine a few times. Then let everything cool for a moment.

Next, trim the fabric along the edges of the book cover. I like to use my rotary cutter for this, but you can also cut along the edges with some scissors.

(Don’t you love all these conversion tables and things on the inside covers of composition books?)

I prefer to use scissors to trim the fabric along the rounded corners.

As a last step, iron along all the edges and corners of the cover one more time, to make sure that fabric is good and fused there.

…And it’s done! Don’t you love this 70’s fabric? I’m only going to use this notebook to write about my dates with Keith Partridge.

Of course, since you’re playing with fusible web, you could also fuse a solid fabric to the cover and then fuse some cut-outs from other fabrics over that. There are a million and one possibilities.

OOh -and since we’re here, I’ll show you another idea that didn’t pan out so well. I thought it would be cool to cover a notebook with duct tape. Since I spend a lot of time at marshy bus stops, it seemed like a nice waterproof option. But, I overlapped the strips of tape, and I don’t love the look of that after all.

(I cut those flower shapes out of more duct tape with an Xacto knife. As you might imagine, it ended up being decidedly not fun.)

Anyway. Happy New Week, everyone!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Ooh! I just noticed that this project I did for The Oregonian has just posted to their website.

Follow this link to the directions for making these dead-simple hanging paper hearts for V-Day. You can use up scraps of decorative paper, or pull pages from old magazines. (The Christmas issue of Martha Stewart Living served me well here.)

Enjoy!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I should say: I’m not much for Valentine’s Day itself, but the crafts are always pretty. I was playing around with felt recently and came up with this simple, non-frilly sachet. Easy to whip up if you need little gifties.

You might have everything you need to make these in your stash: two 6″ squares of woven fabric, and some felt scraps. I made mine with seven colors of felt, but the design would also be cool if all the layers were the same color.

You’ll also want a water-soluble marker and some good fabric scissors. And a heart template – I made mine by folding some card stock and cutting a heart freehand. You could also trace around a cookie cutter.

So first, you’ll want to cut some hearts out of your felt. And these hearts need to be graduated in size, so the hearts get a little smaller with each layer. I figured out a nice, lazy way to do this.

Start by tracing the full-size heart onto the first color of felt, and cutting it out. This will be the bottom-most heart on the finished sachet.

Then, you can fold your template in half again and cut away about 1/8″. You can do this freehand – the hearts don’t have to be perfectly-sized.

Once you’ve shaved this bit away, open the template back up and trace it on the second color of felt. Cut that one out.

…And then repeat these two steps with the rest of the felt colors. Each heart will be slightly smaller than the one before it.

Next, take the smallest heart – this is the one that will be on top of the stack in the finished sachet. Use a ruler and a water-soluble marker to draw a line down the center. You’ll use this line as a stitching guide in a moment.

Stack all the hearts up on one of the fabric squares. Arrange them so they’re reasonably centered on top of each other, but don’t worry too much about it.

Center the stack of hearts on the fabric.

Take this to your sewing machine, and place all these layers under the presser foot. (You might need to press the felt down with your fingers to help it fit.)

Before you begin stitching, take a moment to make sure your hearts are still stacked in a fairly centered stack, and that they’re centered on the fabric square.

Sew your way down the center of the heart, following that line you drew earlier. Be sure to backstitch a couple times at the start and end of the seam.

Next, pin the two fabric squares together, with right sides together and the hearts to the inside.

Head back to the sewing machine and sew around all four sides, using a 4/8″ seam allowance. Leave a nice, big opening in one side, because you’ll need a lot of room to turn those hearts to the outside! Notice how I sewed just enough around those two bottom corners so they’d be nice and sharp, but I left most of that side open? That’s the way.

Clip off the four corners.

Turn the sachet right-side out. Poke a chopstick into the corners, so they’re nice and sharp. And then turn the raw edges to the inside and press them.

Fill your sachet with something nice, like dried lavender, dried rose buds, or cedar shavings. Don’t fill it too full! The sachet should lay pretty flat even when stuffed.

With the sachet filled, slip stitch the opening closed.

If you like, you can sew a contrasting zig zag around the edges of the sachet. Try to press the filling material out of the needle’s way as you sew.

(You could also embroider a design around the edges.)

And finally, use a moistened cotton swab or washcloth to remove that stitching line.

Give the hearts a little “fluffing.” You might also want to trim their edges a bit here and there, if they need it.

And that’s that! Hope you like!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Yay, I was super excited to see that my new project is up on CRAFT this morning!

I designed these Project Keepers as a way to neatly store all my projects-in-progress. They’re a super simple construction – a little like an envelope pillow, so small items can’t fall out. And they come with a hangtag so I can label each project.

Best of all, you can make them from oilcloth, or you can find a vinyl tablecloth (backed with flannel or not) at your local thrift store.

Here’s a shot of the opening, and of one of my longest-standing WIPs. Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl Designs was kind enough to send me this pattern for her Gracie Handbag, along with one of her Bag-E-Bottom stabilizers. I really want this bag! I found awesome fabric!

…And (gulp) a year and a half later, I’m still trying to find time to sew it. Ack.

Wait. Forget I said all that. Go look at the Project Keeper tutorial!

And, check out this pretty idea from Modern June, where oilcloth takes a similar shape as gift wrap!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

There are many reasons to love CRAFT, but one of my biggest is that they let me do stuff like this. Check out my tutorial over there for this crafty storage box.

…Why yes, it is made of plastic canvas! But I added some fabric inserts to change up the look.

Also, days and days of cold, grey weather make me craft in the brightest colors I can find.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Let me just interrupt my week of Vintage Christmas Awesome to show you a new tutorial I have up on CRAFT right now.

These ornaments are made from a combination of Friendly Felt and regular felt. They’re easy to construct – a little sewing, a little gluing. Click over here for the how-to!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

So, yesterday, we learned to make a notepad from a cardboard box. Today, let’s fancy up the cover a little by adding some weaving.

You can start weaving your cover right after this step in the notepad-making process…

Now, most weaving project begin with a little measuring and figuring. I’ll try to keep this part as loose as possible. The nice thing about this little weaving is, it’s not an exact science at all. There’s lots of room for flubs and cheats of all kinds, as you’ll see.

Anyway. On the inside of your cover, measure and mark a rectangle in the center. Make it about 1/2″ inside the edges of the cover on all sides.

Next. divide this rectangle into an odd number of strips, and mark a series of parallel lines, as you see here.

These strips don’t have to be equal, as you can see from my sample. In fact, I think the weaving is more interesting if they’re a little unequal.

Use a metal ruler and a craft knife to cut along these lines. Be careful not to cut outside the borders of that rectangle!

…So when you’re done, you’ll have these nice, parallel slits in your cover. These will be the warps of your weaving.

Now it’s time to make some weft for your weaving. Take another piece of cardboard and cut a new rectangle. It should have these two qualities:

1. It should be the same width as your cover.
2. It should be about 1/2″ shorter than the length of those slits you just cut.

Why make it shorter? Well, the thickness of the cardboard will take up a lot of space in your weaving, as we’ll see in a moment.

Also, I should point out that in my photo here, I’ve actually made the Awake Tea cardboard a little too long – see how it’s only about 1/4″ shorter than my rectangle? That won’t work. Don’t be like me.

Make yours at least 1/2″ shorter. This will all make more sense in a minute, I promise.

Next, cut your weft piece into an odd number of strips. They don’t have to be the same width – in fact, I like ‘em a little uneven.

Enough talk! Let’s weave! Begin by sliding the first strip of weft under and over the warps, as shown here.

Slide that weft down to the bottom of the cover, like this. See how the ends of this weft are hidden under the cover?

Weave in a second weft, this time weaving opposite to your first weft. The ends of this weft are sitting on top of the cover.

Slide this weft down as close to the first one as you can get it. Use a gentle pressure to pack them together.

Remember all that babbling I was doing a minute ago about the thickness of the cardboard taking up space? Here’s where that comes into play. It’s possible that, as you’re weaving, you may need to shave a tiny bit off your wefts so they’ll all fit into the weaving. This is totally okay – nobody will ever know.

Keep sliding all the wefts downward as you weave, pressing them as close together as you can.

When you’ve woven in all those strips, glue the ends down with a little tacky glue. Do the same thing on the back side of the cover. And then place it under something heavy for about 10 minutes while the glue cures.

There are lots of design possibilities with this technique. Here’s a version I made where I cut both the warps and wefts into wide and narrow widths. And I used the chipboard side of the cardboard, and added a coat of Shimmer Mod Podge to give it a distressed-yet-gleamy look.

…Incidentally, you could also incorporate my Handwoven Greeting Card technique here, to make a fiber-covered notepad.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I kid you not: I first made this project, from start to finish, in a dream. (Which was pretty great – I mean, it’s so hard to find crafting-time during my waking hours. Wish I could manage to craft in my sleep more often.)

Anyway. I like these simple notepads – they’re a fun way to re-purpose cardboard into something useful.

In my dream, I used a Kleenex box, so I’ll start with one here, too. But you can really use any chipboard box with interesting graphics.

So, cut your box apart into panels. You an really make these notepads in any shape and size your particular box will accommodate. Since this Kleenex box has that big plastic window in the top, I’m opting to use the side here, which will yield a long, narrow notepad.

Turn the chipboard over to the back. Get a ruler and a pencil, and draw two parallel lines, about 3/8″ apart, in the center.

…Then, score these lines with a bone folder. (Jolly useful, those bone-folders.)

Fold the chipboard along those score lines, and now you have a cover for your notepad. So far, so good!

Now, you’ll need to cut some paper for inside pages. You can use fresh sheets, or sheets from your recycle bin, or magazine pages, or any other interesting paper you like. You’ll need to cut a series of long strips, measuring about 1/8″ smaller on all sides than your cover piece.

So, by way of example, my cover piece measures 3″ wide and 8 1/2″ long. I cut my paper strips about 2 3/4″ wide and 8 1/4″ long. But if you hate measuring, don’t! Just make the paper a little smaller than the chipboard, and all will be well.

Separate the paper into equal bundles. I cut up five sheets of paper here, so I have three bundles of five pieces each. (But you can totally vary this to suit your fancy.)

Fold each bundle in half crosswise. Unfold it, and staple it once along that fold line.

Ooh! A Lazy Bookbinder’s Trick: place the staple in a different spot on each bundle. That way, you can pack the bundles together more tightly when you bind them into the cover.

(This might be a good time to add: you could also make these notepads with fancier stitched bookbinding methods, like this or this.)

Now, take your cover, and apply some strong, flexible glue, like E6000 or Amazing Goop, inside the spine.

Press those paper bundles together, and set them into the glue.

Fold the cover closed, making sure all those bundles are pressed firmly into that spine-glue. Then, place a weight on the pad and leave it to dry for several hours or overnight.

(Yup, Amy, that is what you think it is.) :-)

When the binding is dry, then you’ll need a little strip of chipboard. Mine measures about 3/4″ x 3″ Score this piece twice in the center, like you did the cover. The scores should be about 3/8″ apart, same as your cover.

You’ll also need a nice big button – 1″ or larger.

Glue one side of the strip to the back of the cover – Tacky Glue is fine for this.

Then, stick some velcro to the strip and the cover, as shown here. I’m using those self-adhesive velcro dots, and I trimmed them down a little to fit. You can also use regular velcro, and glue it down.

Lastly, glue your button in place on top of that closure strip. Let everything dry completely before you try opening the cover.

These are easy to make, and addictive! There are a million creative possibilities here – you can use old album covers, or food boxes, or toy packaging, and on and on. The world is filled with interesting cardboard, my friends.

…I should say, too, that in my dream, I was able to open and close this notepad with my mind. Sadly, I have not been able to figure out how to make this part of the project work.

Also in the dream, I made that woven cover you see in the background. But I’ll show you how to do that part tomorrow.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.