Every year that I can remember when fall rolls around I get grand inspiration of making the majority of Christmas presents we give. Sometimes it comes to fruition, but generally only a few get made.
One thing that always stumps me is what to make for personal gifts for the men in my life. While looking around the internet I came across the idea for ReFabulous! tutorial on Paperback Wallets. This looked like a great and simple idea that could be personalized and made quickly, and then filled with cash or gift cards for nieces and nephews, or even my son’s friends birthday presents.
I have been loosely keeping and eye out and window shopping on Ebay for old advertising, greeting cards or vintage comic books that would be fun to use and resonate with the intended recipient. And then this week, the Used Bookstore was giving away some books for free. While not entirely relevant for my crew, the I grabbed a book to try out the project. I don’t have any rivet style snaps around at the moment, so used magnetic snaps.
I followed the ReFabulous tutorial, with the exception of gluing down the book, and using the back cover for the inside of the wallet. It actually a rather cool little simple project. I think metal snaps are probably too thick, and I might want to play with the dimensions – maybe making the inner pockets a little deeper (making the template 1 1/2 inches longer), making it more of a traditional wallet interior (so bills could slide in flat across) or something.
But all in all, these wallets seem sturdy and function! [I have a bunch of smallish pieces of clear vinyl to choose from, I intended to use a lighter 8 gauge, but ended up using with a medium weight 16 gauge, which feels great and gave a great sturdy weigh. I covered both sides of the wallet with tissue paper and increased my stitch length with a denim needle and it sewed through very easily.]
I’m holding on to this idea and excited to try more when I come across some inspiring graphics!