How to Make a Paper Organizer from Lunch Bags
Use Paper Bags and Cardboard to Create Unique Household Organizer
Aug 20, 2009
Here's an inexpensive and neat way to organize and to keep track of all those loose paper items you have cluttering up your drawers using brown lunch bags and cardboard.
Cheap, quick, and easy to make, this is a fun project for your kids and you to put together. It's also a great classroom project for teachers as the materials are readily available.
Made using ordinary brown paper lunch bags as inserts between cardboard covers, each ‘page’ of this book organizer is actually a pocket in which to store postcards, letters, hockey cards, photographs, coupons or whatever else your household collects and saves. The covers are a great way to recycle ordinary cardboard and bits and pieces fabric and decorative paper you may have around the house.
Material You Will Need
- 25 same-sized gusseted paper lunch bags
- 2 – 10 inch squares of heavy cardboard
- 2 – 12 inch squares of fabric (or gift wrap, music sheets, comics, or wallpaper)
- 2 – 8 inch squares of paper cut from a large grocery bag
- Raffia, ribbon, string, or yarn
Tools to Use
- Pencil
- White paper glue
- Hole punch
- Utility knife, scissors, metal ruler
Preparing the Paper Bag Inserts
- Cut off the folded bottoms of the paper bags.
- Next, unfold the sides of the bag and press the bag flat with your hands. Set aside.
Preparing the Cardboard Covers
- For each organizer, cut out two 10 inch squares of heavy cardboard. These squares will form the front and back covers of each organizer you make.
- Draw a pencil line 1 inch along one edge of a cardboard square to indicate where fold will be.
- Using ruler and utility knife, lightly score along this line. Make sure that you do not cut through the cardboard.
- Cut out a piece of your chosen fabric (or paper) that is at least 2 inches larger all around than the covers.
- Centre and glue each cardboard cover onto the wrong side of your chosen covering material, making sure that the scored line is facing up.
- Clip outer corners of covering material; then fold edges over and glue down. Let dry.
- Cut out two 8 inch squares of paper and use these to line the inside of the covers.
- Centre each of these linings on the inside of each cover and glue into place.
Binding the Organizer
- Mark and punch two holes between the spine and scored line, 2 inches from top and bottom edges of each cardboard cover.
- Punch holes in the cut end of each of the bags, using cover holes as guides.
- Stack all the bags between the covers and thread raffia, ribbon, string, or yarn from the holes and tie in a knot, then a bow.
- Once it is assembled, let the kids decorate the covers with crayons, markers, paints, glitter pens, stickers, and foam shapes. For a change, you can even use pipe cleaners for the binding.
Go to Recycling Cardboard Can Save You Money for more cardboard ideas.
The copyright of the article How to Make a Paper Organizer from Lunch Bags in Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts is owned by Stefanie Gabrych Fraser. Permission to republish How to Make a Paper Organizer from Lunch Bags in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
 |
