When I was 19, I spent the summer and fall semester in Paris. So many things struck me as agreeably new and different: the concept of cheese as a dessert course; having different verb forms distinguishing friends and family from strangers; scarves used as a means of personal expression, rather than just to keep warm. It was also the first time I saw a folio, a kind of cross between a folder and an large envelope, with a decorative band or ribbon ties to keep the contents secure and tidy. Folios are attractive options to folders, equally suitable at home, in the office, or at school, and particularly useful for corralling paperwork pertaining to a particular project. I also use them to archive my loose-leaf journal entries, which I've been keeping more or less every day since. . . let's see. . .1974.
Folios are hard to come by here in the States; multiple Google searches were not fruitful. I've had occasional luck finding folios in paper or art supply stores. Semikolon makes a nice, slim folio, while Resource International offers more storage with a 1" size.
Happily, once you have a folio to template off of, it's easy to make your own folios. Slim folios like Semikolon's lie flat, which makes tracing the outline easy. All the cutting and scoring is done with an exacto knife on a large cutting mat. The real trick is finding a piece of paper large enough and sturdy enough to be functional. I use a sturdy "cover" card stock from Paper Source. The 20" x 26" size is plenty big, the color selection is great, and at $1.50 a sheet, the price is right. I then cover the card stock with a pretty, decorative paper using good old-fashioned rubber cement as the adhesive. My favorite part is coming up with decorate fasteners and ties; I tend to favor the ribbon-and-two card stock discs approach, although I've also successfully used velcro fasteners with beaded pulls. No matter how many folios I have, it seems I could always use a few more.
from left to right: hand-made folio made with card stock and red-and-pink polka dot paper; card stock and Japanese plum blossom paper folio; card stock and lilac lace paper folio; folio made with card stock and green leaf paper from Nepal; store-bought vinyl folio (discontinued); another folio made with card stock and Japanese paper (can't get enough of those plum blossoms!); Resource International 1" folio in slate gray; and Semikolon folio.
Close up. You can see the double card stock disc and corded ribbon fastener on the polka dot folio.