How to Make Your Own D.I.Y. Filofax

diy-filofax-1 I’m in Lo-Lo-London and lo-lo-loving it (ugh…the cheese factor)! I have to admit that the jet lag has been a bit of a doozy and with the stress of moving, travelling overseas, and settling in, I’ve let myself off the hook for getting any D.I.Y.-ing done this week. Luckily we have the lovely Steph here to share one of her favourite projects with us…

Hello! I’m Steph from Glitter and Labradors. I’ve got a small blog about some of my recycled and repurposed crafting adventures and am very excited to share my favourite (ongoing) project with you: my FiloFax!

My FiloFax started last September. I was getting ready for a school placement in a Kindergarten classroom and knew that the agendas I found at the store wouldn’t work to hold the papers I’d need to be carrying everyday.

I started with a very simple A5 sized binder. They’re very inexpensive and come in a lot of colours. I got mine for $6 at my local office supply store. If you have a very hectic schedule or would rather have more space you could also reuse a full size binder you have already.

I added a name plate to the side (these can be found at office supply or craft stores), and the binder clip at the top. The cute bird on the clip is actually just a piece of decorative paper tape.

There are two zippered bags at the front of my FiloFax that hold business cards, appointments, paper clips, stamps and markers. My contact info on the left of the book was typed using “English Essay” font and then glued onto card-stock and my book with Mod Podge.

The elastic that holds my book shut came in a pack of two that I stitched together, but all fabric stores sell a variety of elastics that you could easily hand sew. I added a few different coloured scraps of fabric I had and hand sewed them together after pinching/twisting the bottom. If it doesn’t look the way you like the first time, just keep repositioning the fabric and running the needle and thread through until you like the way it looks.

To hold loose pages I made a pocket out of some card-stock by folding and glueing the edges with hot glue and then sealing with a thin coat of Mod Podge.

There are A LOT of printable filler pages for dates, but for this year I chose to buy a 2013 Day Runner refill kit. It had all of the monthly pages and tabs already built in and came with a handy bookmark that’s easy to pull in and out (I love Eric Carle and I work with children, so my FiloFax is a bit whimsical). I’ve also got lined and blank paper in there, in case I have a flash of inspiration.

For the printables, the very talented Jessica Swift has created some beautiful pages. You’ll be emailed the link when you join her mailing list, and you get a cute wallpaper!

I also added some photos. I find they can really bring a smile to my face after a long day. Anything I added into the book was also glued onto card stock and then reinforced with clear ring reinforcers. The idea behind that is eventually I’d like to take all of the photos and printable inserts out of the book and put them in a separate A5 book as a “scrapbook” of our year.