Homemade Filofax inserts

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while but I have had a hectic / stressful couple of weeks followed by a week away. Hopefully life will settle back down a bit now, at least for a while.
I have been meaning to do a post for a while now, on home-made Filofax inserts and rulers. I have always been a bit of a creative type and still like to have a go whenever I get some free time (which isn't so often when you have a small child!)
Anyway, I kind of like the idea of making your Filofax your own. They are very personal and individual things, which is why I think they hold such appeal.
So anyway, on to the inserts... I was hankering after a laminator for ages, so that I could make flashcards and stuff for my 3 year old. So when I got one, yay! The possibilities are endless!!!
I started off by cutting out images from home shopping catalogues which I liked. Mainly designs and patterns which could be either collaged together or used individually to make pretty subject dividers or rulers.
Here are some of my first attempts.

These were just pictures of floral displays that i cut to shape and were a bit rubbish to be honest.
So, I tried again, this time using patterns rather than whole images.

So, I was quite pleased with these, so I tried my hand at some rulers. I used my Filofax today rulers as templates, cut the images to size, laminated them, hole punched them and then made little cuts through into the holes so that the rulers can be pulled on and off the rings without opening the binder (just like with the Filofax today ruler)

So then, I made some as a gift for Judith, who had kindly sent me some inserts from the Netherlands which are not available here. She liked them! :)

Sorry this post is so picture heavy! I hope it inspires you to get creative. I have lots of fun making these, and they make my Filofaxes look lovely :)
See you all soon ;)

Chameleon in distress :)

Hi everyone!
Just a quick update on the fate of my lovely A5 aqua chameleon. After sending it to Filofax to look at, I received it back just 2 days later (very quick!). Unfortunately, they returned my Filofax with a letter to say that there was nothing they could do with it, but I could have a 50% discount off a replacement. I rang them to order another A5 aqua, but there were none left and there would be no more! :(
After a little indecision, I decided to order a red A5 which, with the 50% discount on too of the already discounted price, I got for £22.50!
 Now for what to do with my poor aqua. I decided that the only thing to do was to try to fade the rest of e cover to match the white patch. I remembered someone once telling me that alcohol removed dye from leather, so I got some hand sanitising gel, and rubbed it into the leather, left it for a bit, then rubbed off. It worked! I have to say it was a bit of a scary thing to do, but I felt I had nothing to lose as it looked a mess anyway. I have to say that I am rather pleased with the result! It now has a kind of distressed / vintage look to it which is quite nice. Also, it's an original as I would bet no one else has a chameleon like it! Here are the pics,

please comment and let me know what you think ;)

My poorly chameleon!

As those of you who read my first post the other day will know, I went to the North West Philofaxy meet-up on Saturday in Manchester and had a fabulous day with some lovely people. When I got home and unpacked my bag, I was horrified to see a strange white mark on my A5 Chameleon. It looked kind of like it had been bleached or something. At first I thought maybe something white had got on the leather, but then I realised that the actual colour had gone from the leather like it had 'rubbed off' or something. It is a bit of a mystery, as it was fine when I put it away into my bag at the meet-up, so somehow, the colour must have got rubbed off that patch in my bag.
I decided that I should contact Filofax to see if they could help, as all of my filos (2 other chameleons) had been in the bag together and the others were all fine, and surely the colour shouldn't just come off?!
I e-mailed customer services on Sunday, and Monday morning I had a reply from them asking me to send my Filofax back to them freepost for them to assess it and see if they could rectify the problem.
So, last night I packed my little beauty up really carefully, and today it went off in the post and I am missing her already :( There's an empty space on my shelf :(
I hope they can fix her or replace her and that I won't have to be sad for too long.

Here is a picture of the offending white patch.
Not good! :(
I will update when I hear back from Filofax, hopefully in a few days when they have had a look at it.
I have heard that their customer service is excellent, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Oh, on a happier note, I decided to advertise my personal cuban zip on e-bay as I have never really taken to it as it's really bulky, and after seeing Alison's personal holborn zip I fell in love! I put it on on Sunday and guess what? It sold yesterday - YAY! So straight away, I ordered my Holborn (obviously that will be a whole other post, so watch this space!!!) Check out Alison's blog to see her lovely family of Holborns to which she has just got a new edition.http://filo-obsessed.blogspot.co.uk/

Simple pleasures on a sunny day

Well, I'm back already with my second ever blog post. Thank you to those who have already visited and had a little nosey at my blog. Special thank yous to Steve and Lucy for being my first two followers :)
I am lucky to live right near to a lovely big park with lots of things there to do. On Sundays for most of the year there is often a band or group at the park, on the bandstand, playing music for people to enjoy. Once every year, there is a group called Pantonic All Stars who come from Stockport near Manchester. They play steel drums, which I love. I always go to the park to see them when they play. Steel drums just sound so summery and sunny and lovely, they make me feel all happy and kinda like i'm on holiday. The last two years running, when they have played in our park, it has poured with rain. I still went to see them though, standing under my umbrella or the hut in the park. Their music makes me feel summery even in the rain.
Today, for once it was lovely and sunny, so me, my little fella and my other half walked down to the park with our picnic and sat in the sunshine munching our food, listening to the lovely sounds of the steel drums. I love how sometimes the simplest little things, like some sunshine and some music can lift my mood and make me feel so happy. Such a shame the Pantonic All Stars only come to us once a year. Of all the bands that come to play they are without a doubt my favourite. They have some videos on youtube if anyone wants to check them out.
Bye for now, Deb

North West Philofaxy meet-up

Well folks, I am a virgin blogger who has been toying with the idea of blogging for a while. I guess I just needed a little bit of encouragement and inspiration. So here goes.......
Today is a day that I have been quite excited about for some time. The Philofaxy North West meet-up.
I decided last night which filofaxes I was going to take with me and packed them into rather a large bag. Larger than I am used to carrying! I planned my train journey and wrote the times down in my filofax - of course.
This morning I got the train to Manchester and set off nor really knowing who I would meet or what to expect. When I got to our meeting place in the BHS cafe, there were 2 people sitting at a table with a little sign saying Philofaxy on it. I was relieved as I expected to have to look for people waving their filos in the air or something. There were another two arrive after me. We were a fabulous filofax five!
There was me, Anthony, Lucy, Jenny and Alison. We soon had our filofaxes piled on the table and were having fun comparing inserts & ideas. We were that busy talking that we almost forgot about the shopping part!
We did manage lunch as well, which Anthony very kindly (and very naughtily) insisted on paying for (for all of us!!!)
We shopped at TK Maxx, Ryman and Paperchase. I could have spent some serious amounts of money in Paperchase if I had not been time restricted due to having a train to catch!!! Seriously, I could happily spend a whole day in that place, and a second day in TK Maxx.

Here are some of my photos, but I must apologise to Jenny, as the her picture came out too dark due to her having a window seat. (My photography skills leave a lot to be desired)
Well I hope someone out there enjoys my first blog as much as I have enjoyed my day in Manchester. We have decided to do it on a fairly regular basis as we all got on famously. What a lovely bunch!