DIY....A Perfect Place for Journaling Markers and Pencils!

I have decided to give all 5 of my nieces their own Journaling Bible and markers/color pencils.  I have no idea if they have any interest but I figure I will make it as easy to do as possible to encourage interest.

The plan is to make a book of stickers that they can just color and stick into the Bible OR, just draw themselves... so I bought them each a set of markers, colored pencils, pencil sharpener and a black PITT Pen.  Then I thought that it would be neat to have a small binder that will hold everything, stickers and all.  However, it is really impossible to find CLEAR pencil holders that fit in the small binder.  Hummmmm.... gotta do it myself.  So I went about "inventing" one.  I went to Joanne's and bought a couple yards of heavy acrylic.  Thankfully, I already have TONS of black zippers so that was a "freebie"

I decided that I wanted them to zip at the top so that's where I put the zipper.  Once it was made I decided to add "pockets" for the pencils to get a tighter fit.

VERY HAPPY with the results!  So I cut enough acrylic to make 4 holders for each girl, 20 in all!

But, before I started sewing all of them together I found the following idea on Pinterest.  Cover a Zipper Lock sandwich bag with duct tape!  COOL IDEA!!!

So, I then went to WalMart and bought the cheapest Zipper Lock bags I could find... I think I got 40 bags for less than $3.  They are 7"x8"And, of course I already had duct tape.  

And then I started applying the tape.

Once I got both sides covered I added a "tab" on the opposite side from the zipper so that I would have a place to punch the three holes.  Below you can see that I added 1/2" but that was a little too much, it should be about 1/3"... the wider made it stick out a little too much 1/3" would be better.

Mark and punch the three holes (I used a page that already had holes for a pattern.)

And here you go, PERFECT FIT!  Notice that I left the zipper edge clear so they can see the colors without having to open the bag...since they need two bags just for markers.  And yes, I had to put the zipper on the side because of the size of the bag, but that's ok for the markers because of their size.  This is just black duct tape... not so very pretty but ....

Then I added some brushed gold vinyl dots to make it a little better looking ... hummmmmm....now the red "zipper" part stands out, gotta figure that one out now.

Here is the notebook closed with all markers and pencils inside.  YAY!  LOVE IT!

And to help the black and gold pencil holders match a little better I painted some gold on some of the paisleys.  Not the best picture but you get the idea.