Because I Discovered Pinterest

Okay—I knew it was out there, but I ignored it. And now that I’ve discovered it, well, I may as well jump in with both boots on and add stuff to it. The only way to do this is to post stuff on the web, and so, my blog has now become an official sacrificial lamb to Pinterest.

Well, not really. This is not about to become a craft blog, but it may have some occasional craft stuff on it, so I can put it on Pinterest. I don't even know why. I think I just want to do it 'cause everyone else is.

Okay, so here's a craft. I’m currently serving in the YW* as a…whatchamacallit—an advisor. Whatever. I teach. I’ve been attempting to teach my girls the importance of writing down inspiration when you receive it, of writing while you study your scriptures, writing as a way to question, and so to learn, and writing as a way to expand memory. So, what with the new curriculum and all, I figured it would be cool to give them a notebook at the beginning of the new year to practice this writing stuff. And I figured if I made it cute enough, they might actually use it.

I had a few requirements: it needed to be about the size of the personal progress book (for consistency and because of these (which our YW all want to make, and I wanted to make sure my notebook would fit)); it needed to be refillable/or I wanted the capability to add stuff to it as we go, like handouts; it needed not to cost me a lot of money (this being a relative idea, I know…if you want to do something for free, this will cost too much). So this is what I came up with:

 Yeah—click on the picture to biggify it and stuff.

On the front cover is the title of the curriculum and the year, and on the back is the year's theme. And I added ribbon and sparkly beads to make it...ribbony. And sparkly.

When you open it up...

...you can see that I made some tabs and dividers for different subjects. There are twelve tabs in all, one for each of the monthly topics. Plain 4x6 index cards inbetween colored tabs. (By the way, cutting your own tabs by hand kind of stinks, especially when I ended up making...let's see...168 of them, and then taping them on. If you've got a more elegant solution, by all means, go for it. Just don't share it with me, because I'll probably get insta-angry and shout at you in all caps.)

To make one of these books you'd need:

·            two plain pieces of chipboard, 6.5" x 4.5"

·            paper to make the outside of the chipboard covers all purty (I designed mine on the computer and printed them out on photo paper)

·            two 1" recloseable book rings

·            twelve 4"x6" colored index cards for dividers

·            lotsa plain 4"x6" index cards

·            ribbon or whatever to cause gasps of amazement and craft-lust

Pretty self-explanatory, really. I don't think the bulleted list was even necessary, but hey, I like bulleted lists.

The girls loved them. I actually expect them—encourage them—to use them in class, and I make handouts sized to fit: 4x6 with holes punched on the top. Hopefully they will learn to write and think a little more from using them.

*Yeah, if you don't know what this is, I don't care. Another night I may have bothered to explain it to you, but tonight, I'm too moody, so forget about it. Um. Except you're still reading, so maybe you really want to know—? Fine. It means "yabbering waxworks."