Custom-made Binder

This is to make your own, super awesome, custom binder. The good thing about making your own binder is that it can be made the way you need it, and for cheap. Also, if you make it well, it looks cool too.

You need:

Cardboard, doorskin, plastic sheet, or thin plywood
Old clothes or other things made of cloth or leather
Scissors
Rings
Sewing kit
Glue
Other things to put on your binder (anything)

I wasn't sure what the two things that hold everything together, but I'll call them "walls." The inside parts that give the walls shape. I used cardboard, which is good, but not very strong. If you are looking for something more sturdy, doorskin, plastic, or plywood works. Cut the material to the shape you want your binder to be. Then cover the material with cloth and sew it up. Now you can add stuff to the walls.

We need something to make the binder look good. I decided to cut up vinyl records and glue them onto the "walls." I made a mosaic that sort of looks like my face on one side, and covered the other side with more record shards. You can get old records from thrift stores and old school DJ's. I used scissors and pliers to cut up the records.

The rings are the things that hold the pages together. You can get one from nearly any old binder. To remove it, get a drill with a drill bit slightly bigger than the rivet walls and take out the rivets. If that doesn't work, pry the rivets out from the back with a crowbar. Drilling works better though.
To add the rings to the binder you are making is very simple. You can use the  holes the rivets were, and bolt them to the walls. Another way to do this is by glueing the rings to the walls. You can weigh the rings with books. Waiting is hard.

Now you can adds pockets and other things! I cut an actual pocket out from a sweater and glued it into my binder. If you really like pockets, cover your whole binder with them. That would be a cool binder. I have pockets for my pens and pencil crayons.
The last thing to do is add something that holds your binder closed. I used velcro, but zippers, buttons, and magnets works well too.

Binder making is really easy, and you should take a shot at it!
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