DIY: mom's birthday present

November is the month of my beloved mom's birthday! This year, I plan to make something affordable and within my own budget. Although it might be really simple, I really hope mommy will feel the love whenever she look at the little gift I made from the bottom of the heart. Yes... I decided to make her a file folder!! This is a project upon converting the already useful thing into a even nicer looking one... you get what I meant, right? I do not think "upcycling" will be an appropriate word to use here, mainly because it is not a waste nor useless product. Anyway, here is my very first DIY post!

Let me introduce the main things you will need:

You will need either a scotch/double-sided tape (preferably double-sided), super glue, some studs/rhinestones/charms/pendant/beads, scissors. colored papers in two colors, plastic folder, ruler and pencil (last two items not shown above). Let proceed to the main project!

Step 1: Peel out the plastic at the top left side of the file. Take a colored paper (#1) of your favorite color, I chose yellow to act on my turquoise file. Then, mark the measurement of the rectangular area of the plastic mentioned earlier on the paper.

Step 2: Cut out the outline and place the paper underneath the plastic. Glue the contact between the paper and the file only (don't glue the plastic yet because you will need to write/draw on the paper later).

Step 3: Take another colored paper (#2), this time, I chose green. For this particular one, measure the bottom part of the file and cut out the remaining part (I) as shown on the above picture by a pencil marking. Like step 2, glue the paper onto the file.

Step 4: Take the remaining part (I), put it horizontally facing you. Take a ruler to measure approximately 9.2cm and cut it out. Proceed on by pasting it on any part of the unpasted area on the file. This will be another part whereby you will have to either write or draw.

Step 5: Next, grab back the unused/remaining colored paper (#1) and align it evenly as shown in the picture above. Cut it out. << Repeat this step again. Paste the two papers, one on the upper  section of the smaller green paper and the other on the lower section/

To sum up, this is roughly how it looks like.
Step 6: Take any decorative items like charms, studs, rhinestones, beads ect. Put a little more glue to them as they might have a slightly heavier weight than that of paper to paste on the file. In this case, I used psylla beads. You can purchase them at IKEA and make your own designs.
Afterwards, decorate the cover page of the file! That's to your own preference, if it for someone you love, you could draw hearts and flowers for them. You can also play with fonts... anything you like!

Step 7: Moving on to the back of the cover page, which is the inner side of the file, I am actually going to make a folder to put in the cards/dedication for my mom. You need not do it if the file you bought already has that portion, lucky you ! For this step, simply use a plastic folder. Roughly use a permanent marker to outline the part you wanna cut out. Paste the plastic using double-sided tape. I do not want to use super glue here because I find that it will look messier that way.
You can then end of with writing a heartfelt letter to your -whoever you want to give the file to-. 

Bonus (extra/optional) step: You would like to cut out irregular rectangular shapes to paste on the side of the file. In my opinion, this gives a dimension to the file.

Alright, you excited to see how the final product look like? Here you go..

Not a absolutely nice and accurate one, but still... I am satisfied. My apologies for the blurry image for the final part... perhaps I shook there.

Anyways, for the vote... my next T&O topic will be: How someone change so fast overtime Lastly, today's meant to be Halloween so Happy Halloween guys! Don't get too wrecked up upon seeing ghosts/monsters. :D