Greetings humans! Since my exams are now over (huzzah!) I decided that it was about time I made another post, and also about time that I created some new dividers for my Paperchase personal organiser (I apologise that the title may therefore be misleading, although it is the same size as a Filofax personal so there is no reason as to why this post should not be applicable) - therefore, I decided to merge these two elements of my life together for your entertainment and amusement, since it hardly went perfectly.
Here's a picture of my organiser, and Paperchase's own dividers inside (the sticky notes are from Tiger). As you can see, they are a little bright and furthermore, I did not use each section as it was labelled so I struggled to get the most out of this system.
This is the paper I used - I bought it for £10 in Hobbycraft. Although on the surface this seems incredibly expensive, when you take into account how much a set of Filofax dividers usually costs (around £6), and that I only used three sheets of this paper for all six dividers, it is obviously far more cost effective in the long term. I chose to use the pattern I did simply because it was my least favourite. I know it doesn't match the organiser (none of them really do, but since when has matching been something I'm particularly worried about?), and I don't particularly dislike it, but this was my first attempt at creating dividers and so I didn't want to use the best paper in case I made a mess of it - as you will find out, I sort of did.
My plan was simple - draw around the dividers I currently had (if you don't have any current dividers just draw a box the same size as a normal page but make sure you leave room for a tab - I was far too lazy to do this), cut them out, label them, hole punch them, put them in my organiser, sorted. The first stage went perfectly to plan:
I then cut them out and realised that on half of the dividers, the pattern was upside down. This didn't present a massive issue to me - I'm not going to see all of the dividers at once and most of the tabs would have writing on them anyway so the pattern would be somewhat obscured.
To write with, I used this Uni Permanent Marker. Unfortunately, my handwriting was not particularly neat (I think writing so many essays in such a short space of time has taken its toll!) and the ink feathered a little. I only labelled three of the six dividers, simply because I'm still unsure what to use the rest for. I think next time I will create separate labels on separate pieces of paper and stick them on - I couldn't use any other pen because the paper had a plasticy-smooth finish (technical terms AHOY!) so the ink wouldn't set.
Now onto the most disastrous of my mistakes - the hole punching. For this, I used Rapesco's personal organiser punch, which is available for under £10 on Amazon.
I bought this specific punch because it was adjustable to both pocket and personal sizes, and I also have a pocket Filofax that I use as a purse. Earlier, I had been creating and punching inserts for this, and if you haven't guessed what happened yet then try now.
That's right, I forgot to change the setting back to personal size before I punched the first divider - I am particularly amused since this is the 'academic' divider and this was a terribly stupid thing to do. Nevertheless, I changed the setting and punched it again...I don't think it looks too bad.
To make sure that the holes were in the centre of the divider and not too high or low, I drew a line on the back of the dividers so they could be lined up with the hole punch (maybe I did do something right!).
Here is how they finally look in the organiser - evidently handmade, but for my first attempt and considering how awful I am at being a competent human being, I'm quite proud of them.
I hope you've enjoyed reading about my poor attempt at being vaguely crafty - I'm sure there will be many more to come!
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