4×6 Index Card Folder Tutorial
A simple 4×6 index card folder tutorial to hold your monthly, weekly and meeting diy planner templates!

This folder is very similar to the DIY Cardboard Binder, just a little smaller with binder clips and velcro instead of binder rings and elastic.
Supplies
- Two sheets of heavy decorative scrapbook paper
- Sewing machine or glue
- Two binder clips
- Small piece of velcro
Plans

Directions
Because the length of the folder needs to be 17 inches, I sewed some cut up 12×12 scrapbook sheets together to get there. If you have a sheet of 17″ paper or cardboard skip the first 4 steps and just cut two pieces of 4×17 rectangles.
- Take the 12×12 scrap book paper and cut it into 2 strips of 4 by 12.
- Cut two more pieces to 4 x 6.
- Take one 4×12 and one 4×6 and lay it out so that it’s 4×17 – giving you an inch overlap for gluing or sewing. This will be the inside of your folder.
- Repeat for the outside.
- Attach the front and back with glue or by sewing around the edges. Sewing gives the paper a more flexible and sturdy feel, it’s also fun to use the stitches as part of the design.
- At this point, you should have a double sided 4×17 rectangle. Mark lightly where the folds will go – see the dimensions diagram above. Finish decorating by drawing, stitching, painting, adding stickers or sprinkling with fairy dust! Keep in mind that we still have to make the folds, so your decoration should hold up to this.
- Next, add the three folds – hold a ruler against the fold mark on your desk and push the flap up against it, this will give you a nice straight fold. My paper split on one side during folding so I went over the fold with a wide zig zag stitch to reinforce the edges.
- The last step is to add velcro. Stitch one piece onto the inside right flap, then close the folder and line up the other side on the outside flap.
And you’re done! Use the binder clips to hold two stacks of 4×6 index cards (or the booklet pictured, tutorial and download here!) on each side.



DIY Cardboard Binder

If you want to make a fast and easy binder this is it. You probably have all the parts to put it together just sitting around your house right now!
Supplies
- Gluestick and hot glue gun
- Flat Cardboard (not corrugated). Could be a cereal box, packaging or shoe box… get creative!
- Cheap 2-ring 3×5 notecard binder, or any old small planner or binder
- Pieces, parts, stickers, envelopes and scraps for collaging
- File folders or thicker paper for dividers, heavy scrapbooking paper works great
- ♥ DIY Planner Templates to fill the inside!

First, pull out the 2-ring binder clip from your 3×5 notebook. Directions for this and attaching the clip here. Decide what size paper you’d like, poke holes in it and hook it on the binder ring. Measure all the way around this – remember to measure for any tabs you’d like to include plus a little extra on the edges. This will be the width and height of Part A and Part C in the diagram above. The width of Part B should be as high as your binder clip plus a little extra. Part D can be whatever width you’d like really. It can be shorter and fold inside or outside, it can be wide as Part A and Part C or even a funky shape.
Once you figure out your sizes add the widths together and cut out one strip of cardboard. The cardboard I used was thinner than I would like so I cut out two pieces the same size and glued them together. Now make your folds, decorate and add the binder clip!
The pocket on Part A is optional. I cut out a piece of the same cardboard and attached it with hot glue on 3 sides. The closure is a piece of off-white elastic from Joann’s. Stretch it around the closed notebook to get the right length. Then cut two slits in the spine to feed it through. On the outside sew the ends together and you’re done.
Happy binding!






4×6 Binders, coming soon
I’m big on DIY’ers and would love to see you making your own binders… but I decided to make a few to sell and see what happens! Here’s the first in progress – stay tuned for store updates and new DIY Planner templates.



Binder Ideas and Links
This is part three of the ‘Binder Series‘ –
Previous posts: The Bee Planner and The Repurposed Book Binder
Here are a few people and notebooks I’ve been inspired by in my Binder research!
Bastiano

One of my favorite book makers is Bastiano – if you want to see amazing stitch, collage and book art go here.
NYX Creations
NYX has put together a REALLY cool binder tutorial using binder rings, cardboard and collage.

Remains of the Day
I recently signed up for Remains of the Day by Mary Ann Moss, a ‘Shabby Journal of Scraps’ online tutorial site.
Mary Ann’s video tutorials focus a lot on laying out different fabrics, book binding and creating paper pockets and all sorts of wonderful pages and collage techniques to fill books with. Check out all her lovely journal pages on flickr here.

I made this roll-up pencil pouch a while ago and had really been wanting to use the sewing/collage technique again. Super inspired I set out to make a Binder to match using the slip-cover method explained in Remains of the Day for the notebook cover.








Hello, I'm Amanda Hawkins. 


