Let's Beautify

I could have taken regular file folders on my trip to SoCal, but really, would that have been beautiful?

Here's how to do it:

You will need:
1/2 to 5/8 yard fabric (it's easier to cut them out of 5/8); this will do 3-4 according to how close together you put them.

Spray adhesive
Rotary cutter and mat
Detail scissors
Rolling pin

Lay you fabric face down on the rotary mat. You can iron the fabric first if you'd like, but don't wash it--you want the extra body. Take your folders (one at a time) outside and spray them with the adhesive, paying special attention to the edges.

Place the folder adhesive side down on the fabric and roll with the rolling pin, putting a lot of weight into it. Flip the whole thing over and roll it from the fabric side.

Now we're going to cut!

Use your rotary cutter and straight edge to trim everywhere you can. Then use the detail scissors to cut the areas which are too small for the rotary.

If your folder is heavy, you may need to adhere one side at a time with the folder closed so that it will be able to fold. Mine were super thin (WalMart) and so I was able to lay them flat and still have them work.

Now for the labels:

I used Print Shop and scanned in the fabric and some motifs from the fabric. Then I made the labels. If your fabric is dark, but you want to use it for the whole label there is a place in Print Shop where you can change the saturation.

Believe me, none of this is very hard; I figured it all out on my own.

Voila! Enjoy the folders.

Now let's do some cord keepers!

My Mom uses toilet paper cardboard centers to keep her electrical cords in check (like for her curling iron, blow dryer). Really, it's a good idea; recycling and all. But really, really ugly. So let's fix that.

It's the same premise as the file folders, but with cardboard tubes. Don't tuck your fabric into the tubes, fold the edges under and then adhere to the tubes. You can further beautify your tubes using ribbon or any other kind of trim.

I put these together using hot glue and will not do that again. They're pretty, but they're not very neat.

If you want your cord keeper to be flat (boxy) instead of round just press down on the roll and then open up and press down again, forming a rectangle. The bottom one on the left is my Kindle cord keeper and that's all the Kindle people had done.

Let's cut it up!