Binder for Craft Material Storage

This is an easy peasy project that's also pretty and useful!

Supplies
Contact paper ... already had ($1 at Dollar Tree)
awesome zebra striped Duck Tape ... $2 clearance at Wal-Mart
1 gallon plastic freezer bags with slider lock ... $2.50/25 bags. I used 10 so the rest went to the kitchen.
Scissors ... on hand
Hole punch ... on hand

Process
I found these ideas at Contact Paper Covered Binder  and Plastic Baggies in Binder.

Here's what I did:

1. Measure front of binder.
2. Add 1 inch to height and 1/2 inch to width.
3. Cut 2 pieces of contact paper to these measurements.
4. Place  contact paper on front of binder flush to the left side. Make sure you have 1/2 inch on the top, bottom and right to wrap around the edges.
5.  Remove backing and smooth paper on, wrapping on 3 sides. Cut corners so lies flat.
6. Repeat on back and edge. I used 3 separate pieces so the paper doesn't hinder opening and closing the binder. It makes it look a lot neater also.
7. Apply duct tape to one edge of baggie - not the top or bottom. I used one long piece and wrapped it around the bottom and up the back.
8. Punch holes.  This might be difficult since you're cutting through 2 layers of tape and 2 of plastic. I had to use scissors in addition to the hole punch. I initially put the tape half on and half off the baggie then punched through the tape only. It was a lot easier but the bags stuck out of the binder which I didn't like.

Results

I love the binder so much, I made a second one. They hold my stencils, stickers, trim, fabric patches, etc etc.

 

Good luck on your projects!
Ellie

Closet Dividers from Old CDs

I'm hardly what you'd call ultra organized but I do hoard stuff I hate to send to the landfills...like old CDs. When trying to get rid of them I saw this idea and loved it.

Supplies
CDs ... free, part of my Crafts Stash I'm trying to get rid of. Yay!
Contact Paper ... $1.00 from Dollar Tree. I had plenty left over for another project.
Kitchen Shears ... on hand
Heat Gun or Hair Dryer ... on hand

Process

I followed the directions from SweetCheeks Closet Dividers.  It's HARD to cut up CDs. Even with kitchen shears. It wasn't until I broke out the heat gun that I could cut them without destroying my hands. Some CDs were impossible to cut without cracking so I'd recommend having more than necessary.

There are lots of ways to cover the CDs but contact paper is soooo easy & looks awesome. As you'll see from the photos below I can barely hang my clothes up, let alone spend hours decoupaging closet dividers.

I didn't label the dividers since I didn't want to ruin their beauteous-ness (can you tell I'm ridiculously proud of these?).


Results
Here they are newly created:

And in their new habitat:

  

I'm happy, what do you think?

Ellie