I was given a new challenge by a co-worker the other day:  a 3-ring binder covered with fabric.  Hmmmm, I say..... I've done those a trillion times, but not in years!  I remember my mom's bookshelf sitting behind her favorite chair, lined with her fabric covered notebooks, some with cross-stitching on the front, but every one holding something very dear to her.  And it made for a very colorful bookshelf, too!  So I took on the challenge this evening to see if I could still do it.  Out came the rulers, the pins, the scraps, the scissors....  This is what I came up with as a demo using a 1" 3-ring binder I got at Staples today....

It was a successful project and was actually fairly pleased with the end result.  See the wire cooling rack sitting on its side to the left there?  There was enough of the muffin patterned fabric to make a little notebook to go along with it and stick in the inside pocket.  The mini book is drying on that rack with only two more coats of decoupage to go and a nice trim.

As you all know, I don't cook or I'd keep this one.  :)  But it could be filed with plastic cover sheets, photo pages for recipe cards......... the options are numerous.

Give me more ideas, everyone!  Are there enough pockets on the inside cover?  Should there be something else added?  Taken away?  

Keep creating, folks, and enjoy LIFE!

As many know, shopping and I do not get along.  But I was in the part of town for a meeting this morning that also included Joann's and Staples on the way back home.  AND I had a 50% off coupon, which I always save to use on the outrageously expensive Peltex that's used on just about every sewn item that's done in this house.  How do people buy it without a coupon?  Anyway..... here's the mother load from my shopping trip this morning.  

My Staples trip was well worth it as they had a 3-Ring Binder sale going on.  Buy 3 and get one free!  Well, Katie bar the door and sign me up!  The little books weren't on sale, but that's okay as they are a great price to begin with.

BUT....  the Staples customer service was over the top wonderful!  And I told them that while I was there.  Since I'm sort of in that same line of work, I truly appreciate GOOD customer service - and they have it rocking and rolling at our local store.  Oh, to be able to run into that kind of service more often.... it would make shopping so much easier for those of us who hate it!  Thank you, Harrison, for your greeting, your smile, your helpfulness AND conversation!!!  You totally made my day.

After a night of no sleep, I decided to just get up and do something, anything!  It's better than laying in bed fighting it.  So I got up at dark o'clock (yeah, maybe minus-dark-o'clock) and tried doing another mini receipt holder, only this time making it a little bit bigger to accommodate some of the cutting dies I have for envelopes and mini pocket folders.  Well, as it turned out, I was about 3/8" off the new style - too SMALL!  I could have dealt with too big.  Not sure how to fix this one, and I'm not even going to show you a picture it came out that awful.  But that's what the drawing board is for - to fix and re-calculate.

Let's just hope that this isn't going to start a new trend around here, so we won't even go there, right?

Need the mojo back!  And like Scarlet always says - EVERY time I see that movie  - "For tomorrow is another day!"  Yep, there I go quoting from movies again.  

Happy creating, everyone!  Don't ever give up, you never know what you might just end up with.  

So Marcy asked, "How's the golf vest re-do coming?"  I never expected what was to come next.  
The golf vest is sitting on the extra bed.... letting it try on different handles, fabrics, etc.  It just wasn't happy with the fabrics I brought out, so it whispered to me, "Go look in the storage room and it will come."  LOL  OK, so I steal lines from movies once in awhile.  I'm thinking that I could look through my handle stash while in there, and then I remembered there were two totes that haven't been opened since we moved here 2 years ago.  LOOK AT THIS MOTHERLOAD of FABRIC!!!!  There's plaids, stripes, florals, kids, tye-dyes, themed..... it's extensive!  I about started screaming for joy, but decided to grab the camera first so I never EVER forget this treasure.  I got so much flack when we moved about all the totes of yarn that I'd forgotten about my fabric stash.  God is SO good!  I could have eBay-ed all this stuff before the move, but decided not to.  God knew!  He'd had plans for it all.  But anyway, the perfect denim popped out amongst all of this and the golf vest will now be happy. Oh, and the perfect handles appeared from the storage room, too.