DIY Kindle Cover

Last week my old faithful Kindle finally died. I'm usually a HUGE fan of Amazon's repair/return policies - but my warranty had expired (figures) so it was going to cost $65 for them to repair it. OR, I could just pay $15 more for a new Kindle. As much as I love my old one (Ryan got it for me Christmas a few years back), I couldn't justify paying just as much to get it repaired as I would've for a new one. And so, I now have a new Kindle.

The new Kindle is much, much smaller than the old ones. I was hoping that it would fit into my old Kindle's cover - but, no such luck (also figures!). I didn't really want to spend tons of money on a new cover, so I did what anyone would do - turned to Pinterest! I found a ton of really cool ideas and pinned them to my DIY board.

In the end, I decided to take a little from each tutorial and hope for the best. It actually worked out pretty well! I didn't take pictures of every step like I should've (my hands were covered in glue...), but here's a quick rundown of what I did:

I bought a couple different prints of scrap fabric from JoAnn. Also, I got a thick orange ribbon (for the "spine"), some spray adhesive, a sheet of felt, some elastic and a clasp so that it would stay closed.

I like to reuse things so I cut up the box my Kindle came in to make the front and back covers. I measured them based on the size of the kindle. Then, I took the pieces outside and used the spray adhesive to attach the fabric to ONE piece of the cardboard. Once that was in place, I put the Kindle on the cardboard, and put the other piece on top of it. Then I applied spray adhesive to that piece and folded the fabric over top of it. This step is important, because you want to make sure you have enough fabric between the two pieces of cardboard so that it folds around nicely when it's closed.

Once that was done, I cut off the excess fabric, folded the corners in and glued them down.

Next step was to make the "spine." I took the ribbon I bought and glued it down with fabric glue along the space in the fabric where the cardboard was missing. You'll want enough on either end to be able to fold under and glue down on the inside.

On the inside, measure and cut the felt to fit. You can see how the corners of the fabric are folded in this picture, and how the ribbon ends are long enough to fit underneath the felt. The felt serves to protect the screen of the Kindle, but it also hides the loose ends of the fabric and ribbon and cover the cardboard.

The next step is by far the hardest. I took the elastic and made corner holders to keep the kindle in place. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be - and fabric glue didn't help. I ended up using hot glue instead.

For the two on the edge, I tucked both ends under the felt and glued them down. For the two on the inside, I tucked one end under the felt, and glued the other down in the middle. To cover those ends, I wrapped another piece of the ribbon around the felt. I let all this dry before moving on to the last step - attaching the clasp to hold it closed.

I got lucky at JoAnn and found this awesome clasp, which I hot glued on. And that's it, folks! Your very own DIY Kindle cover. Happy crafting! :)

DIY Magnetic Marker Board

As those of you who know me know, I spend most of my life on Pinterest. (It's an addiction!) It's part of what sparked the idea for this blog, and got me started / will keep me going on DIY projects.

So when I saw this pin, I thought - I can do that! And, so I did - with just a few minor changes. I didn't have any scrapbook paper, like the original post I found on Pinterest suggested, and Michaels didn't have any that I loved, so I headed over to Joann Fabrics and bought a few of the scrap squares for $1 each to make this lovely marker board.

This is a great way to get rid of extra scraps of fabric that you've got laying around.

Here's what you'll need for this project:

- A picture frame (mine came from Michael's in a 2 pack)
- Hot glue or fabric glue
- Scrap of fabric big enough to fit into the frame, with a little extra on the sides to attach it
- Magnets
- Scissors
- An iron/ironing board - not needed if your fabric isn't wrinkled!

Some notes: You'll be better off getting the lightest picture frame you can find. The lighter it is, the less magnets you'll need to keep it from sliding down the fridge. (Yes, I learned this the hard way.) Also - make sure the fabric you pick is a light enough color that when you write on the marker board, the writing shows up against the background.

This was a super easy project. Lay the fabric face down on a flat surface. Take the cardboard back out of the picture frame and lay it over the fabric. Cut around the edges so that you have just enough to cover the cardboard, with a little extra so that you can attach it to the back.

I made sure to pick a fabric that you couldn't tell if it was crooked - stripes would not have worked well for me! :)

Next, apply glue to the back of the cardboard, and fold the edges of the fabric over on top of the glue.

Do this for each side.

Then, you'll want to make sure the corners are secure too, so they don't show from the back of the frame.

Let the glue dry, and flip over the cardboard. This is what you should have!

Slide the cardboard back into the picture frame behind the glass, and secure the fasteners on the back just like you would if you were putting in a picture.

Finally, glue magnets to each corner. It helps to pinch the corner of the frame, to make sure the magnet won't show past the sides of the frame. I think this is where it might've been helpful to get a thicker frame, but that would've made it heavier too - so you'll have to make that choice.

When the glue dries, test the board on the fridge - if it doesn't stay in place, add a couple more magnets to the middle of the long sides of the frame.

And voila! You have a home-made markerboard.

Happy crafting! If you make your own, let me know how they turn out!