But this time - you should listen. Watch and learn. See how the master of organization and craft does it.
lolz - I'm not the master of anything :)
okay, I'll back up just a bit. Mr Lemon has many wonderful qualities, but organization is not one of them. He likes organized stuff, likes to know that everything has its place. But if something is out of place like say, the water bill got shuffled in another pile, or I moved his hankies to {what I thought was} a more obvious place - he can't find it. It is frustrating to him that whatever he's looking for doesn't jump out and throw a parade with candy and confetti. And then he tries to organize the tangled mess that is the desk drawer, and I can't find the water bill. Only it doesn't frustrate me. I just start throwing stuff away until I find what I'm looking for ;)
Yesterday with all the errands that payday brings, the toddlers were exceptionally well behaved. Maybe it was the cookie I fed them while I drank my Happy Adoption Day To You Starbucks, or the promise of the suckers from the bank, or the threat of leaving the store the moment he misbehaved - I don't know. I'd like to think it was my exceptional parenting skeelz, but I'm pretty sure it was the junk food. Whatever the case may be, we visited Hobby Lobby with great success.
So we did some crafting to attempt to sort through all the stuff I managed to keep with all the pitching of papers to find the water bill. Zesty voluntarily buckled himself into the booster seat and I did not argue. I handed him his watercolors and a pile of paper, and even shared the stapler. He made several wads of sopping blackish-greenish paintings and I did this:
It's smaller than I wanted, but I have a good idea of where I want to go for a functional and more sturdy mail sorter. So. You wanna try it?
Here's what I used:
2pk of 8"x10" canvasses, $3.99
2 cool sheets of 12"x12" patterned scrapbook paper, $.59 each
2 even cooler sheets of 12"x12" patterned scrapbook paper, $.59 each
mod podge, $3 something
paint brush that's only been used once and cast aside for the Purdy one
12" ruler
pencil
stapler
with staples
scissors
spare time
scratch that - too hard to come by. Put one toddler in the crib and strap the other one down in the booster seat.
Firstly
Cover each of the canvasses with the scrapbook paper of your choice. I used the notebook-lined style paper because the happy little print was adorable! Painting on the mod podge was fun - sticky, but fun. I chewed on my nails later and found I didn't wash my hands as well as I thought. Ew.
Secondly
Cut a 3" strip off of the second scrapbook paper of your choice, then cut the larger strip in half, leaving you with two 4 1/2" x 12" pieces. Put the 3" wide strip in your scrapbook paper scrap pile or whatever you scrappers call it. Repeat for the other piece of paper, so now you have four strips of 4 1/2" x 12" paper.
Thirdly
At the top of each 4" wide piece, mark in 2" from the left side and again the right side. On the bottom, mark in 2 3/4" on the left and the right side. Keeping the pattern side of the paper in front, make a diagonal fold backwards.
Keep folding each edge in 1/4" to create an accordion fold on each side. I ended up with 3 folds and a back flap to secure later. Trim the top even, and repeat on the three remaining pieces of paper.
Fourthly
Turn the pocket around and fold up the bottom edge 1/4" to hem it. I hemmed and hawed and decided to put a back cover on it to stabilize it even further. While doing that I apparently came unhinged because I laughed at my own pun. Eight hours ago. And wrote it down on a brown paper sack so I wouldn't forget when I had time to actually blog it. anyhoo. No measurements here, ladies and any gentlemen who are still reading this RIVETING tutorial - just eyeball it and staple a piece of paper that you can staple at the bottom folded edge and also glue to the edges of the left and right diagonal edges of the back of the pocket. A trapezoid, I think. Or not.
Fifthly
At this point I just smeared some more mod podge on the back of the pockets and slapped them on the barely-dry canvasses. I plan to get some decorative thumb tacks to secure the bottom edges and also inside the pockets on the back flaps.
These are pretty small, and I didn't think it through - using the canvasses in the portrait position makes it impossible for me to file mail in the pockets because they are not wide enough. I can still use it for lightweight mail, like birthday cards from Mr Lemon's 36th birthday this week and a wedding invitation for later this summer. And some paint chips and an ongoing list of repairs/repaints we're planning. You know. The great stuff that doesn't really need to be filed anywhere, but it piles up on the counter and water bills get lost underneath. Gotta keep the fridge clear for any paintings that manage to actually dry, or make it out of Zesty's grubby paws in one piece.
{Really. They made me the obligatory handprint Mother's day cards in Sunday School, and only Pinky's survived long enough for me to receive it gratefully. Zesty chewed his up and shredded the remains. Pitiful, and hilarious. I dutifully documented this fact on the inside of the card so that in eight years when he finds my collection of Mother's day cards and wants to know why I didn't keep his and do I love Pinky more? I can prove that I never actually received it.}
Next time I do this project I'm going to accidentally buy a lot more scrapbook paper ;) and mod podge two pieces together to make a stiffer pocket.
Or I could buy expandable pocket folders and just cover the front of it and the inside back section, and thumb tack it onto a larger covered canvas.
That would not be a tutorial nearly as lengthy and boring as this one, but it will still have to wait because I did eventually find the water bill, and I paid it.
The end.
you're welcome.
2 cool sheets of 12"x12" patterned scrapbook paper, $.59 each
2 even cooler sheets of 12"x12" patterned scrapbook paper, $.59 each
mod podge, $3 something
paint brush that's only been used once and cast aside for the Purdy one
12" ruler
pencil
stapler
with staples
scissors
spare time
scratch that - too hard to come by. Put one toddler in the crib and strap the other one down in the booster seat.
Firstly
Cover each of the canvasses with the scrapbook paper of your choice. I used the notebook-lined style paper because the happy little print was adorable! Painting on the mod podge was fun - sticky, but fun. I chewed on my nails later and found I didn't wash my hands as well as I thought. Ew.
Secondly
Cut a 3" strip off of the second scrapbook paper of your choice, then cut the larger strip in half, leaving you with two 4 1/2" x 12" pieces. Put the 3" wide strip in your scrapbook paper scrap pile or whatever you scrappers call it. Repeat for the other piece of paper, so now you have four strips of 4 1/2" x 12" paper.
Thirdly
At the top of each 4" wide piece, mark in 2" from the left side and again the right side. On the bottom, mark in 2 3/4" on the left and the right side. Keeping the pattern side of the paper in front, make a diagonal fold backwards.
Keep folding each edge in 1/4" to create an accordion fold on each side. I ended up with 3 folds and a back flap to secure later. Trim the top even, and repeat on the three remaining pieces of paper.
Fourthly
Turn the pocket around and fold up the bottom edge 1/4" to hem it. I hemmed and hawed and decided to put a back cover on it to stabilize it even further. While doing that I apparently came unhinged because I laughed at my own pun. Eight hours ago. And wrote it down on a brown paper sack so I wouldn't forget when I had time to actually blog it. anyhoo. No measurements here, ladies and any gentlemen who are still reading this RIVETING tutorial - just eyeball it and staple a piece of paper that you can staple at the bottom folded edge and also glue to the edges of the left and right diagonal edges of the back of the pocket. A trapezoid, I think. Or not.
At this point I just smeared some more mod podge on the back of the pockets and slapped them on the barely-dry canvasses. I plan to get some decorative thumb tacks to secure the bottom edges and also inside the pockets on the back flaps.
These are pretty small, and I didn't think it through - using the canvasses in the portrait position makes it impossible for me to file mail in the pockets because they are not wide enough. I can still use it for lightweight mail, like birthday cards from Mr Lemon's 36th birthday this week and a wedding invitation for later this summer. And some paint chips and an ongoing list of repairs/repaints we're planning. You know. The great stuff that doesn't really need to be filed anywhere, but it piles up on the counter and water bills get lost underneath. Gotta keep the fridge clear for any paintings that manage to actually dry, or make it out of Zesty's grubby paws in one piece.
{Really. They made me the obligatory handprint Mother's day cards in Sunday School, and only Pinky's survived long enough for me to receive it gratefully. Zesty chewed his up and shredded the remains. Pitiful, and hilarious. I dutifully documented this fact on the inside of the card so that in eight years when he finds my collection of Mother's day cards and wants to know why I didn't keep his and do I love Pinky more? I can prove that I never actually received it.}
Next time I do this project I'm going to accidentally buy a lot more scrapbook paper ;) and mod podge two pieces together to make a stiffer pocket.
Or I could buy expandable pocket folders and just cover the front of it and the inside back section, and thumb tack it onto a larger covered canvas.
That would not be a tutorial nearly as lengthy and boring as this one, but it will still have to wait because I did eventually find the water bill, and I paid it.
The end.
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