I just love the Thoroughly Modern File Folders…Stampin’ Up! gave us some ideas on how they can be altered and used in different ways…so I searched around and found some alternative ways to use them and I love the idea featured below…it is a combination of various tutorials I found online – it uses just one of the File Folders that you turn into a beautiful notebook holder…you can see photos and instructions below…

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These are just perfect for teacher or co-worker gifts and they are sooo economical to make – they cost only $1.30 in materials and look sooo professional…they are wonderful quality and so durable…you can find them on pg 169 of the Catalog – they come in a pack of 12 for $10.95 and feature 4 different designs. For the notebook inside, I used a mini Legal Pad sized 8″ x 5″ that you can find at any office supply store – they cost around $1.99 for a pack of 5…I also made a notebook topper and a matching pen by wrapping a piece of Thoroughly Modern DSP around it, which you can find on pg 163 of the Catalog – what a fabulous and so very affordable gift.

You can find instructions on how to make this wonderful project below – if you want to order any supplies, you can do so by clicking HERE which will take you to my Demonstrator Website and you then click on ‘Shop Now’ in the top right corner – the order codes are:

115692 Thoroughly Modern File Folders $10.95

115673 Thoroughly Modern Designer Series Paper $9.95

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Step-by-step instructions…

Choose one of the fabulous folders to use – it’s a tough choice as they are all sooo wonderful…

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Open it out so that the small label tab is on the right side…

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Trimming….use your Paper Trimmer to cut 2 1/4″ off of the left side and then cut off the excess of 1/4″ that you see on the bottom edge (one side of the folder is 1/4″ longer than the other as you can see in the photo above). Finally cut off the tab on the right side.

Scoring…use your scoring blade to score the following…score 1/2″ to the left of the center score line…then open up your paper trimmer’s measuring arm and line the left side up with 13″ – make a score line…then line the left side up with 13 1/2″ and score again – when you look at the file folder you should have 4 vertical score lines. Finally you need to make a horizontal score line – score at 3 1/8″ up from the bottom edge of the folder (to do this in my paper trimmer I folded it in half so that it would fit and scored and turned it over a few times repeating the score to make sure I had a good impression).

To make the pocket for the notebook use your Paper Snips to cut a square out of the bottom right corner along the 3 1/8″ horizontal score and up the 2nd vertical score line from the right. Use your Bone Folder to fold along those lines to get nice crisp folds.

You should end up with this…

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Folding…put very strong adhesive tape – I used Sticky Strip – on the right and left sides of the bottom pocket – fold it up and secure. It should now look like this…

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Finally slip your notebook into the pocket – I adhered a strip of Thoroughly Modern DSP to the top of mine which continue the theme and makes it look fab – and I also used a piece to decorate my pen…put velcro closures that you can find at craft stores on the flap and front and there you have a fabulous and very economical gift to kids, teachers and co-workers…isn’t it amazing?

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