Christmas is coming, a little file folder tutorial and a freebie

 Hello friends, - now that Halloween is over and winter here in the Northern Hemisphere is just around the corner, I though I would put my attention to a Christmas project, - so this is what I came up with:

A little folder, made from an old file folder with multiple pockets and a notebook sewn into the middle.

I'll show you more photos of the finished project toward the end of the post, but first a quick tutorial, really in response to the many emails I receive from visitors telling me how they appreciate them, - so thanks for that!

It all started with a simple Kraft coloured file folder:

I opened it, folded it in half, closed it again and then cut off the tabs on the side using my trimmer, as the photos below will hopefully show:

There are now 4 layers but my trimmer managed to cut through them ok as file folders are usually not very thick.

Once the tabs were cut off I opened it again and folded the bottom up to create a pocket. This is a little trickier, so a bone folder is definitely helpful at this stage.

Next you need to fold the sides in towards the centre, leaving a gap in the middle to sew in the notebook. This is a stage you could easily leave out, and just keep your project as a little tag folder only.

To make it easier to fold your project into a booklet, I found it helps to cut a little slit in the pocket fold as you can hopefully see from the photo above

Now I like the look of sewing with projects like this, but you could easily just glue. So either sew or glue everything in place. If just using glue, run a thin line of strong glue on the inside of your fold lines and then glue the sides but leave the top open. If you sew, you can zig zag right around three sides, but leave the top open also. Next glue your 4 pockets, or using a wide zig zag stitch sew them like I did. The open top is for 4 additional pockets, you can punch a notch with a circle punch to make it easier to get the tags in and out.

Now all you need to do is cover everything with papers of your choice, make your tags and you are done. I hope the photos below will show more or less what I did, but obviously the possibilities are endless.

Here you can see the side flaps folded in. I used my latest Christmas Collection, as I wanted to make a Christmas themed folder, using both the background papers and all the embellishments that come with the kit.

                                    Here you can see the inside pockets on the left of the note book.

            Here is the front cover of the notebook, the inside pages are just plain coffee dyed paper.

I just folded this paper cut to size and then sewed it in with my sewing machine, but again you could do this by hand using a pamphlet stitch.

                Here you can see the centre of the note paper with a simple running stitch holding it in place

Here are the tags that fit in the top pockets, they are slightly larger than the ones that fit in the inside pockets.

And here you can see some of these smaller tags inside their pockets on the right of the note book.

Here finally is the back of the booklet, I fitted a piece of paper and some lace around the spine to hide the stitching from the notebook. I fitted some seam binding underneath that to close the booklet.

Well, that's it, and here finally is the freebie that you have been waiting for, enjoy, and like usual, just email me to get the full resolution sheet for printing.

                                            Happy crafting and thanks for your visit like always.

xxxxx