Another New Design

We had an email from Shara Buffington's Mom Susan the other day asking if we could make her a large Shara wallet, only there were a few changes that she thought would make the wallet work better for her.  She liked the size of the Shara and she liked the ten credit card slots, but she wanted two compartments, one on the outside and one on the inside, to hold photographs of her grandchildren.  She referred to these new compartments as coin purses, so we simply sized up our standard coin purse so that it would fit on the outside and inside of the left-hand flap.  It took a little playing around and a few false starts, but the final wallet came out so well that we've decided to carry it as another choice in our Big Wallets category. 

The day I was walking around thinking about this new design, I met up with  a friend who handed me a bird seed bag and asked me to make a Shara out of it for her.  I mentioned that I was concocting a new version of the Shara, and she liked the sound of it so much that she asked me to make one of those for her.  So look below to see photographs of Shara's Mom Susan's Shara's Mom as well as Laurie's Shara's Mom!  (You can custom order your own Shara's Mom on the Big Wallets catalog page.  And remember, everything is on sale until June 21!)

The original Shara's Mom is on the left, and Laurie's Shara's Mom is on the right.

This is the inside of Shara's Mom's Shara's Mom showing a big coin purse on the left and credit card case on the right (and bill folds under each of these).

 

This is the outside of Laurie's Shara's Mom, showing one of the coin purses on the front (right side).

And this is the outside of Shara's Mom's Shara's Mom.  The lighthouse, which Susan requested, came from a bag of Cape Cod potato chips.

How to Recycle a Recycled Wallet

If your wallet is getting a little scuffed and worn,  or if you're just getting a little bored and are longing for a change, consider recycling your wallet and treating yourself to a bright new spring one!  To help you do that, we're running a SPRING SALE until the summer solstice-- June 21.  Here's the deal:  between now and the official end of spring, we'll send you $3 back on every wallet or bag that you order through this blog and $2 back on every Ultra -Slim or checkbook cover.  Place your order as usual, and when we ship it to you, we'll tuck your rebate into your wallet or bag or checkbook cover. 

Now for the big question-- what do you do with your recycled wallet when you want to retire it from its active life as a wallet but it still has some life left in it?  Here are a few ideas: 

1.  Make a planter out of it (see the illustration above)
2.  Open it out flat, cut a small X in the center and a slit leading from the center of one side to the X;  then slip it around the stem of a newly-planted tomato plant to protect it from cutworms and as a mulch.
3.  Open it out flat, fold it in thirds, and use the resulting skinny rectangle to cushion a branch of a tree or bush  that you need to tie up.
4.  Fold it like a small tent, push the tent up against a brick or a piece of garden edging stone, and you have a fine toad house for one of the most useful garden predators around.
5.  Open it out so its bright colors show, and hang it in your garden as a scarecrow.
6.  Cut it as described in #2, only slip it around the trunk of a blueberry bush as a permanent mulch.
7.  Open it out and fill it with potting soil as in the illustration, and use to to start seedlings indoors.
8.  Use it to store seeds as you collect them.  Put the seeds into small folds of paper, label them, and tuck them into the various pockets and slots of your old wallet for safekeeping over the winter.

These are just some off-the-top-of-our-heads ideas.  If you think of others, send them to us in comments, and we'll send a FREE wallet or bag or checkbook cover to the people who send us our five favorite ideas that we get before June 21!