Creating an Organizer

I have decided to create a home organization binder this year as one way of getting myself more organized and in control of my daily life.
I have often tried to do all these tasks on the computer before, but find it is not practical. The computer is not portable, a pain to get out every time I need to check something, and increasingly it is occupied by children working on schoolwork or games!
I decided if I was going to have a binder I wanted it to be pretty. I was not finding what I wanted until I was at a crafting garage sale and found a great chipboard one. The binding on it was already covered in pretty pink fabric. Perfect!

The next job was to find some paper I liked to cover it with. Luckily I have a daughter who also crafts as none of my extensive collection co-ordinated with the binder. However, she had a book of paper that I just LOVE that all co-ordinates and she very generously shared with me.

I chose a patterned piece for the outside covers and a teal one for the inside. Incidentally, the teal and green were our wedding colours. How cool is that?

I decoupaged them in, then added two coats over the paper to try to seal it a bit better so it would hold up. The key to successful decoupage, as in so much of life, is PATIENCE! Use thin layers and let it dry completely before adding the next one.

Next I added ribbon to trim the edges. This part was a bit tricky as my ribbon was not as thick as I would have liked. For those of you who preplan supplies, choose a 1" ribbon, then you can just fold it around the edges and be done with it! I attached my ribbon with Sookwang sticky tape, making sure to fold it over the edges of the binder to protect the paper edges from catching and ripping off. I started where the paper joins the cloth and worked one piece of ribbon around the top, outside, and bottom edge of each half of the binder.

See how the bottom and outside edge have a nice narrow border?

Next I used ribbon on the inside to make a thicker border as the ribbon wasn't wide enough to cover the inside edge well.

I figured out the hard way that I should have done the outside edge top to bottom first, then cover it with a horizontal piece. Why? Because it is hard to fold in the ribbon on the second end to the exact spot you want it. By doing that order you only ever have to fold one end, because the final ribbon piece, the vertical one close to the binding of the book, wraps around the whole book and is just doubled over on top of itself so it doesn't have to line up to a nice spot. See?
On the first one I did below, the ribbons didn't match so nicely, and my pretty rose is to hide my messy corner where I ended up with sticky strip and no ribbon!

Finally I added some Stampin' Up Vintage Roses to the front and voila! I was done!

My pretty binder has me all excited about getting organized!