Customising a folder - Indie Biz 2.0 style!

I'm quite excited to be starting the Indie Biz course tomorrow. The precourse work has been fun! I thought I'd show you my folder customisation following the instructions from Frecklednest but changing it a bit to suit me!

I bought an inexpensive A4 folder. I chose it because I didn't hate it. Really, what are they thinking when they make those hideous folders!?

I really like the inside though and think it will be fun to work in such close relation to pattern.

The supplies needed for this customisation include scrapbook card so off to the scrapbook shop I went. I've never done scrapbooking but visit the shop occasionally for supplies. This time I found these foam alphabet stamps on the clearance rack!

Flying in the face of the direct instruction NOT to customise the cover of your folder if it was shiny I moved over to my messy table and mixed a little acrylic with medium on my paper palette pad, brushing it out thinly and as evenly as I could.

Testing... Not too bad. I quite like the transparent look too. I learned the hard way years ago with lettering to always start with whichever letter needs to be in exactly the right place and work backwards from there.



Lettering on the cover is finished. Back to my paper/fabric table.

I'm not into measuring much so I used a divider I had on hand to be my guide when cutting the scrapbook card to size on my paper cutter.

Here are my 5 chosen papers trimmed to suitable A4 divider size.

Punch a couple of holes in them and they are ready for the next step. Tabs!

I decided to use the offcuts from the scrapbook card as it is double sided and I can mix them up a bit.

I cut some small rectangles, (approx 7cm x 5.5cm) one of each card, folded them in half and round corner punched the folded edge.

At the scrapbook shop I discovered they keep really good double sided tape in about 10 different widths. This is the widest one they had, just less than 2cm. Add some to both sides of the tabs.

Position the tabs as needed for your dividers.

Voila! I used white gel pen and brown ink pen to write the labels.

Time for the front pocket. I cut some card I had left over from another project to the size of the pocket I wanted plus 2cm fold on 3 sides. Cut the bottom corners diagonally and add some of that super sturdy double sided tape.

Now it's ready to add to the inside cover of the folder.

And here it is, all finished. Well, at this stage I thought it was finished. Here is a quick tour of my folder.











All very gorgeous but I decided to add a bit of light blue Poscar pen to the lettering on the cover.

I put in the pages from my Indie Business workbook. This is all I am going to show you because the rest is shhhh secret squirrel! It's not too late though if you want to join the class, if you do it right now!

A bit of white gel pen to the lettering too - I've never really known when to stop when it comes to things like that!

I wanted a front pocket I could put some extra stuff in because the first pocket would only hold a few sheets of paper so back to the cutting board. This time I cut the card to size plus 3cm fold on 3 sides. I made this one shorter than the first too. Score lines on the 3cm, 2.5cm and 2cm marks. Fold each fold the opposite way (mountain, valley, mountain) to create a concertina sided pocket. Add the double sided tape again.

Position the second pocket on top of the first. Ah! Now that's storage!!!

Don't forget it's not too late to join the class but it does start tomorrow so you'll need to be quick. I hope to see you 'in class'. It looks like it will be lots of fun and there is a great bunch of people I've met already.