Extreme Couponing... or not

Lately TLC has been showing a ridiculous amount of ridiculous shows; like 'Extreme Couponing.' The people on this show buy obscene amounts of stuff from the grocery store for pennies. Literally. One episode I watched, a woman actually was owed money by the store and ended up with credit. It's insane. Anyway this show was sort of the inspiration for this post.

So to be true to this blog's description, (particularly the crafting part) I made a cute, cheap and easy coupon holder!
Here's the list of items you'll need:

 

• Fabric- whatever suits your fancy
• A good pair of scissors
• A hot glue gun or any type of strong glue that you may have
• Cardboard or even really firm cardstock
• Cord
• Button 

Most of the stuff I used you can find around your house. I got the cardboard from a box under my bed. I have fabric but I was at Hobby Lobby and they have those cute little bundles of coordinating fabric. I couldn't resist.

I'm pretty sure there are a million ways you could accomplish this but this way worked for me. I also recommend listening to Lady Gaga's new album- 'Born This Way', it was good crafting music.

1. Cut out the cardboard (if you have to). I used the side and top flap of the cardboard box because they were already connected in a natural wallet-like shape. Here's where you'll need the good scissors. I hate cutting cardboard. It's a pain. Each flap of cardboard ended up being about 4" x 7".
2.  Next measure the fabric and cut it out so it is about a 1/2 inch longer on every side than your cardboard or firm material. Now do this again. You'll end up with 2 pieces of fabric
3. Now you're going to essentially make a cover for your cardboard. To do this you will need to take your two pieces of fabric and have the pretty sides facing and on top of each other. Now use the hot glue gun or glue of choice (not Elmer's, it won't work) and glue 3 of the 4 sides together. Make sure the part you glue is about 1/2 from the edge of the fabric. You should now have an inside out pocket.
4. After the glue has had time to dry, turn your little pocket inside out. You should now be looking at the pretty side of the fabric. Put the cardboard inside.
5. Now your cardboard is inside. yay! Now to get rid of the last edge and have your cardboard neatly tucked away, tuck the fabric inside the pocket and glue it to the cardboard and then to itself. Hopefully the pics later will help explain this part.
6. Now just add some final decorative touches! I wanted a little pocket inside of mine so i used a separate piece of fabric to do this. To make the pocket, cut out a piece of fabric that is the length of the  cardboard and about the width of one of the flaps. Next, fold the sides and bottom in to make your desired pocket size. Glue the bottom and sides to your coupon holder starting with the bottom first. Voilà! Pocket:)
7. To keep the little guy closed I glued a button to the bottom of the top flap and then glued a lengthy piece of suede cord around it. I used the cord to wrap around the entire holder and keep it secure.

Now for pictures!

Front!

Back view

coupons in the pocket!

I plan on using this for coupons or receipts or whatever will fit in it!
Happy crafting :)