I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, and it linked to this awesome blog post.  I wanted to make this for Albert.  I printed these on cardstock with my laser printer and I used a font called Belta.

I don’t have Adobe Illustrator, so I used Photoshop to make the template.  I barely know Photoshop, so I had to do a lot of guessing. :P  I then used Mod Podge to glue it down, then two coats on top to seal it.

Lastly.  These effin’ binder rings.  I didn’t think they’d be so hard to find!  My mom picked up a pack of three at Don Quijote before I left Hawaii, but when I finished with the Mod Podge, it looked too fat to be able to fit the 1″ rings.  I decided to find something bigger when I got to Evanston.

CVS didn’t have them.  I went to a copy store.  They only had the 1″ ones.  I went to an art supply store.  They didn’t have them either.

I looked up a Staples in downtown Chicago and on a rare sunny day in winter-slapped Illinois, I went down there and finally found a 9-pack of 2″ rings.

When I got home, they looked HUGE on the cards!  EFF.

So I went back to the copy store to buy the smaller, 1″ ones.  But they didn’t have them anymore!  An employee poked around a bit and found one that was sitting in their garbage pile, so she gave it to me for free.  But I still needed one more.

I ended up giving it to him with just one ring.  I know he didn’t mind.  But today, I was determined to find another one.  I’m a perfectionist, and the incomplete-ness of it annoys me.

I went back to the art supply store, asked them again, and one of the employees told me to try the Ace Hardware store.

FINALLY!  They had different sizes, and they sold them individually!  I bought one for 64 cents.  Blehhh.  Such an ordeal for something I thought was pretty common!

I’m going to return the 9-pack to Staples, and the 3-pack back home in Hawaii.

So, for future reference: 1″ binder rings will work fine, and you can find them at Ace Hardware stores.

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!  Hope you had a good one. :)