Fellowship of the Things

Cut sheets of paper to preferred size. The paper used in these instructions was from a 4"x 5.5" (10cm x 14cm) notepad found at the dollar store.

Cut two pieces of felt to the same height and slightly longer than the paper.

Fold the cut paper in half, 6 - 10 sheets in total.

Using the x-acto knife, cut two parallel slits for each crayon in one of the felt pieces (this will be the inside). Start small and expand longer as needed. You want the crayon to fit snuggly. If it is too loose, it will slip out and be lost.

Using the folded paper as a template, stitch the inside felt piece to the outside piece down the paper edge close to the center of the felt . This seam will not run perfectly down the center of the felt, as the extra width is needed to accommodate the thickness of the crayons.

Bundle the folded sheets of paper together.

Slide through the loop at the center seam, resting at the fold.

Optional:

• Embellish the outside piece of felt with felted designs, embroidery, or block printing before stitching together.

Crayons are lovely, everyone loves crayons!

However, beware!... Crayons melt. They melt very easily, especially at outdoor camping events or sitting in a car traveling to the event. And when they melt, they drip and stain into EVERYTHING.

If you are going to make these using crayons, I highly recommend packaging each one individually in a ziplock bag, so if they do get a little toasty, the melting crayons will only destroy the one item.

If I cannot avoid using crayons for summer largesse, I try to make sure to verbally inform whomever I am handing the bundle of items to that "there are crayons inside, please do not leave in the sun".

Pencil crayons are wonderful because they do not melt. Also, older youth may appreciate them more than crayons as they can be used to write as well as colour, making these felt notepads more versatile across age groups.

Unfortunately, once the colour breaks, they are basically useless unless you have a knife or a pencil sharpener on hand. I do not include a sharpener in my notepads, as I find them bulky and difficult to fit into the design.

Pencil crayons are also typically a little more expensive. To help on costs, I chop the pencil crayons in half using a chop saw (just saw right through the whole box). This has the added benefit of making them about the same length of a standard crayon, so the dimensions of the patterning still works.