Mixed Media Suitcase (Part I)

I’m a sucker for a Michael’s coupon.  No really. For example, I’d actually gone over a week without a visit when ‘ding’, I get a text with a Tonight Only! 30% off coupon.  Since I know there is always a weekly 40% off coupon, how could I resist the chance to save money on craft supplies?  Exactly! I couldn’t.

Recently I have picked up a couple of really cute storage boxes at Michaels, which I had been using for stamp pads and my latest craft crush, Copic Ciao markers.

My trip yesterday netted me a really adorable ‘suitcase’ that I was certain I could turn into a ‘grab ‘n’ go’ mixed media kit. Since I currently have extreme space limitations for my craft supplies, this would make it much easier to just grab the suitcase and get crafting, since it would hold all the basics to create my mixed media masterpieces.

I chose the Paris chalkboard design, mostly because they didn’t have a suitcase in the teal Dream Big design, but also because it was Paris. Paris and art have a history, ya know? It’s about the size of an attaché case [insert dimensions here] so it’s not too big, but yet still large enough to fit just about everything I might need (within reason).

My super helpful (ahem!) feline assistant, Fiona. Can you tell she loves creating?

When I opened it up, I had a vision of my watercolors and mini stamp pads somehow attached to the top.  This would be perfect, since they tell you to store your stamp pads upside down.  The big question was, how to attach them?  They needed to be easily removed, yet stay put when I closed the top.  I had seen other people use elastic straps, but I had no elastic in the house.

What I did have was magnets. Applying magnets to the back of the watercolors (and a pair of craft scissors) was a no brainer, but the ink pads had a recessed back.  Putting a magnet on the back wouldn’t work with the tiny, but super strong, magnets I had.  I was perplexed but determined.  I could just envision my mini Distress and Memento Dew Drops all lined up in the cover all pretty like.  I decided to sleep on it.

Lo and behold, morning brought the answer.  Bottle caps.  We have an abundance of bottle caps and they were the perfect size to glue to the back of the ink pads for the magnets to attach to.  I used E-6000 to glue the bottle caps to the backs and a little dab to glue the magnet to the suitcase lid as well.  Quick Tip: To get the magnet in the perfect spot, put it on the bottle cap/ink pad back first and position it where you want, no need to measure or guess where it needs to go.

It worked!  See how awesome it looks with my colorful watercolors and inkpads securely held in the suitcase lid? 

Now that I have storage in the lid nailed down, it’s time to move on to just what to include in the suitcase itself.  I’ll share that, and more photos in my next post.