Coupon Holder

Have you ever wished you had a coupon holder that actually held the coupons you use? Well, now you can make one for yourself. Its a cute book with pockets that hold all your coupons on one side and have a place on the other side to hold the ones you plan to use for each trip to the store. You can put in as many or as few pockets as you want, and give them the category names that you want. and the binding is fun and easy and allows you to add more pockets or take out any that you find you don't use. It has paper in each section for you make notes if you need to. (Sometimes I need to be reminded which flavor I like, or where its on sale.) You will need: mat board for the covers and spine, cardstock for the pocket pages, copy paper for the note pages, scrapbook paper to cover the cover, a stick a little shorter than the length of the book, and 8 rubber bands.

Start with your pocket pages. I made mine tall and thin to hold those long coupons. I started with an 8 1/2" by 9" piece of bright-colored cardstock. Then I experimented with it until I figured out how to cut it to get what I wanted.

I cut the pocket at an angle to make it easier to get the coupons into the pocket, and here you can see that the holes are in both pieces of the pocket. Fold the pocket piece to the back side of the page and glue only the bottom with a thin line of glue right next to the edge. Then from the leftover piece, cut another pocket to glue to the front of the page. I used several different colors and mixed them up on the pages. This pocket should be narrower than the page so that the edge doesn't get caught in the binding.

When you are cutting the vertical edge of the page, don't forget to cut the tabs for identifying each section. (I made a pattern that had four tabs on it so I could cut whichever one I needed for the page I was doing.) Cut some copy paper 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" to make your note pages for each section. Stack up your pocket pages with 4 or 5 note pages in between and punch holes in them down the cut edge, spacing them evenly, about 1 1/4" apart.

Next comes the cover. Cut two pieces of mat board or really heavy cardboard or chipboard for the cover. Measure your pocket pages and be sure to add the width of the tabs to the measurement of the covers. My covers are 4 7/8" x 8 1/2". (If your cover isn't heavy enough, glue two pieces together for the front and two for the back. Measure the depth of your stack of pages, measuring the folded edge, and add 1/2". This will be the width of the spine and the length will be the same as the covers. Lay your front cover, spine and back cover out on the table, with about 1/8" in between the pieces and measure for the cover paper. Add 1" all the way around. Cut your cover paper to these dimensions. You will need to use a 12x12" piece of paper, heavy enough to hold up under constant opening and closing. Glue the cover pieces to the paper, with 1/4" spaces, and glue the edges up around to the inside of the cover. Finish the inside by gluing in another paper that is 1/4" smaller all the way around. Glue the papers together in the spaces between the pieces really well and fold the covers over to make sure they are stuck together.

When you have all your pages and cover made, you need to punch holes in the cover to match those in the pages. Open your cover and lay one page over the back cover and spine, with the edge that has the holes even with the fold on the front side of the spine. Mark the holes with a pencil. Flip the paper over and lay it over the front cover with the holes to the back side of the spine, and mark the holes. Now you will have two rows of holes about 1/4" in from the folds of the covers. Lay your stack of pages on the back cover and its time to start the binding. You will need a large needle, like for needlepoint, and some heavy thread, like button and carpet thread or crochet thread. Thread a piece of thread through the needle and tie the ends around one of the rubber bands. Loop the rubber band around the stick and put the needle up through a hole at the back of the spine, up through the pages and back down through the corresponding hole in the front of the spine. Loop that end of the rubber band around the stick, too. Do the same thing with the rest of the holes, putting a rubber band in each one. Gently work the stick up the spine as you add each rubber band.

When you get to the middle of the book, loop an extra rubber band around the stick and just leave it hang there. This will be the band that holds the book shut. Mark your tabs and put a little sign on the front of each page that says "Today's Coupons". Now fill it up and start saving!

That's this week's project. I hope you enjoy it. It really is handy and I use mine all the time. No more looking through a big pile of coupons trying to find the right ones. Love, love, love it! This way of binding a book is a natural for nature journals, too, and your kids will love to make them. Next time......

I read something yesterday that hit me with its truth - Gratitude is believing that what you have is enough. Keep up the good work. Gramma G.