Decorating File Folders

Yesterday I decided I was in the mood for crafting. I've seen people make plain file folders into works of art. I wouldn't go that far on my rendition of this. But I had a lot of fun nonetheless.

This is my work area. I work on the computer here, and also make crafts when the mood strikes me.

And this is what I chose to store my finished file folders in. Yep, that is a Walmart dish drainer. Cheap too. And the utensil holder is a nice place for my pencils!

Here they are individually.

By the way, that glass tabletop they're sitting on is an old school desk I picked up at an antique store years ago. The top got kind of ragged, so I decoupaged wallpaper over it. Then ordered a glass top to fit it.

This is how I made them. First, I picked out some scrapbook papers I liked. I adhered the scrapbook paper onto the fronts of the file folders with glue. I then used a hole punch on some to add a few holes to tie ribbon in to hold the sides together. I knew I'd probably store vintage images and scraps and such in these folders, so I didn't want things falling out readily. The others I stapled shut in a few places at the sides with various colored staples.

Then I used some stickable paper ribbon at the tops. I found this at Michaels on clearance a few weeks ago. I then went through my stash of vintage images and quotes. I adhered these to scrapbook paper to give them strength and a degree of thickness. Then I just added stickers and whatever immediately struck my fancy to embellish the folders. (By the way, you can find these images free on certain websites. Just type into Google "free vintage images" or something similar and they will come up. Then just print them off.)

I have decided I kind of like them! Beats plain old manilla folders, for sure. And they look pretty sitting on my decoupaged child's school desk in the red dish drainer.

What do you think?