Papercrafting Project: Index Card Folder



A lap full of paper crafted projects

It's a quick jump from my Book and Journal Making Pinterest board over to my Paper Crafting board, and I've been finding new projects among all of my pins there.

Most recently, I followed Amanda Hawkins' tutorial over at Ahhh Design to create this Index Card Folder.

Amanda is a maker of DIY planners and a collage artist.  She describes her style as dirty, grimy, minimal, and abstract.  Her planner pages, some of which are for sale and some of which are available as free downloads on her web site, reflect that style, and are created in a very handmade-looking fashion with a typewriter, somewhat tilt-y graphics, and random doodle-y designs. I find them kind of appealing!

Many of her planner pages are the size of 4x6 index cards, so she designed this index card folder to hold them, using binder clips to keep the pages inside and Velcro to keep the folder closed.

I jumped right in, using paper I really like, and, of course, mis-measured right out of the gate.  Taking advantage of the error, I sewed the extra paper over, and ended up with a little opening that is the perfect size for a little golf pencil!

The folder, as you can see via Amanda's tutorial folds out into three sections.  You can put whatever papers you like inside.  I put her month-at-a-glance planner page to the left here, and her week-at-a-glance planner page in the middle, so you can see how the folder might be used with Amanda's own designs.

This is what the folder looks like when you fold the left-hand flap over:

You can see the two pieces of Velcro, above, that keep the folder closed.

In her tutorial, Amanda uses two pieces of scrapbook paper and sews them together so that there is a pretty pattern on both the inside and outside of the folder.  For the second folder I created, I used a piece of double-sided scrapbook paper.  It made for beautifully coordinated colors, but I'm not sure if the single layer of paper will hold up as well to wear-and-tear as the double layer.

 This folder follows Amanda's design without my added slot for a little pencil.

I thought the paper made it perfect for holding recipes.  I could keep the week's menu plan on the left, and clip in the recipes I need to use right in the middle.  Handy, right?

For my third index card folder, I went back to stitching two pieces of paper back-to-back, and I think the two layers will definitely hold up better.

For this one, I show some business cards clipped in on the left.  I could see this working as a handy little purse planner!  It is extremely downsized from the planner I currently use.  I wonder if I could get used to something so basic and stripped down from my current notebook planner?

I was also thinking that different folders could serve different thematic purposes.  For example, I like to keep track of books that I want to look for on my next trip to the library.  Why not have an index card folder specifically for books?  I could clip in lists of book titles that I want to check out, library slips with due dates, and even an ongoing list of books I have read. 

My daughter came in to check out my projects:

 You can see why "wear-and-tear" are on my mind!

So here is the final result of my paper crafting playtime:  three index card folders that can be used to hold planning materials, recipes, book lists....what other uses can you think of for these fun little folders?