Ink Stains: Vintage Flash Cards

Hi All!

I hope you're having a super day!

Not long ago Melanie noticed I have vintage flash cards in my Etsy store and she wondered what you can do with them so I thought it would be fun to share a few projects here and there.

Today's project is doing double duty...

They are super to make for yourself but they also make GREAT little gifts!

(to mom....I already know what's coming...yes, I will make you some.)

Dad's day is coming up and these would make perfect gifts for him to keep in his car (or truck); in the garage; at work; etc.

Let's begin...

Vintage Flash Card Note Pads

Supplies:

Vintage Flash Cards (2 per note pad)
Copy Paper
Binding Machine or Hole Punch
Binding Wires, Wire, Ribbon, fibers, etc.
(Optional) Other Embellishments

Instructions:

1. I start off by measuring the flash card I am going to be using to determine what size I will need to cut the inside pages. I normally cut my paper about 1/8" - 1/4" smaller than the actual dimensions of the card.

For example if my card is 3x5 I will cut the paper 2.75 x 4.75".

2. Once I know what size my paper needs to be I cut a large pile of paper. I like to plan my cuts out ahead of time because much of the time you can use the entire sheet of paper by making multiple sizes of note pads at one time.

As far as how many pages to cut...that's totally up to you. You can make the note pads smaller with 25-50 sheets or make really fat ones and pack lots of pages into it.

3. Now it's time to punch holes in both the pages and flash cards. I am using my Bind-It-All by Zutter... You can of course use any binding machine you might have or you could simply use a hand held hole punch. Just make sure you line your holes up so all of the pages and flash cards will line up accordingly after they are bound.

4. It's time to bind your flash cards and pages together. Again I am using the wires which go with my bind-it-all but you can use any number of things for the binding.

I have in the past made my own spiral binding by wrapping heavy duty wire around various items (anything from pencils, chop sticks, dowel rods, etc.).

Other binding ideas include (but are not limited to): Book Rings; Fiber; Ribbon; Leather Strips; Seam Binding; Twine; Ball Chain; etc.

After your pages have been bound together you can leave the note pads as is or you could go on to further embellish them with virtually anything you desire.