Roadtrip Ready: Make a Padded Camera Bag

I have wanted {and needed} a nice bag for my DSLR camera since the first day I bought it. I got the plain black camera bag at the store when I first bought my camera...and it worked fine when I only had one lens. But when you start adding lenses and accessories, those standard black bags just won't cut it. I have drooled over some fancy leather camera bags online, but I just can't make myself spend $100 or more on a bag {and yes most of my purses cost less than $30 and are from Target or Kohl's}. So a few weeks ago when I saw this AMAZING tutorial from Make it and Love it I knew that instead of continuing to drool over camera bags, that I would just make my own.

I started out with a bag from Target that cost $15. The thing that I liked about this bag is that it has the longer strap, so you can wear it across you chest...that way you can do a million other things and not worry about dropping your camera bag. And even though I love the leather bags that I've seen online, this fabric one was way cheaper and I can just toss it in the wash if it gets dirty!

I {kinda/sort of/halfway} followed the tutorial from Make it and Love it and created this cute little padded insert that slips right into my bag. All you need it a little bit of foam and some pretty fabric. I'll  let you click over to the tutorial for the details because although my bag is functional for me, I didn't include a lot of the extra things {like Velcro to hold the divider in place} that the original tutorial did.

After I made the padded insert, I just slipped it down into my bag and added in my camera. Now my camera has a pretty and safe place to stay while we are roadtripping across the West this summer:)

How do you keep your camera safe when you are on the road?

Roadtrip Ready: Elastic Bookmarks

Hi Friends...I'm (the other) Kelli and I am honored to be over at THE Kelli's spot today.

I blog over at Outside My Kitchen Window where I randomly talk about my life...my walk with Christ, my hubby and two kids, crafting, and my attempt at organizing my life :)

Today I'm sharing something neat that I discovered a few years ago...simple elastic bookmarks.

On road trips I read a lot in the car and so does my oldest child.  Since we have enough stuff to keep track of on a road trip it is nice to have something that we don't have to worry about losing.  These bookmarks stay in place all of the time...so Jamison and I don't have to worry about losing our place in our book if we happen to fall asleep while reading.  This also eliminates having to search the already-crowded car for a bookmark.

Here's what you'll need:

Charms, rings & elastic string.  All of these things you can find in either Michaels or Hobby Lobby in the jewelry making section.  I found all of this at Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite places).

There are usually a wide variety of charms to choose from...I'm using this one for Jamison's teacher.  The one I made for Jamison has a cupcake charm :)

Here's another charm and that thought was really cute.

Once you have all of your materials you will measure your string...you need 15 inches.

Depending on which charm you have will depend on whether or not you will need the ring.  This apple charm already has an extra ring so you can just slide the string directly through the ring of the charm.

This charm has a smaller ring and does not have an extra ring so you will need to take one of your rings and attach it to the charm...like you would attach a key ring.

Now you are able to string your charm.

See...

*Please excuse the blurry picture*  You will make a knot to secure the charm.

Then make a knot at the top.

Finished product!

You will then simply loop the bookmark around the book to hold your spot.  You can leave the bookmark in the book while you're reading too because it doesn't get in the way.  This way you never have to take it out of the book...you just move it to the next place that you stop.

See...doesn't fall out!

So there you have it...a simple bookmark...leaving you with one less thing to worry about and allowing for more joy on the road.

Thanks for having me Kelli :)

Roadtrip Ready: Make Roadtrip T-shirts

Today's Roadtrip idea is one that is SUPER fun and really easy to personalized for your trip: Roadtrip T-shirts! I've made vacation shirts for my boys before, and we always get so many complements on their shirts. Plus having a cute personalized shirt for the trip makes it that much more fun for the kiddos, and saves you a little money because you won't have to buy those expensive and not very cute touristy t-shirts!

You can really make almost anything into a cute shirt for almost any kind of roadtrip:

Mickey {here's my version} or Minnie {here's Amanda's cute version} for a trip to Disney

a silhouette of the Statue of Liberty for a visit to New York City

a surfboard with waves for a trip to the beach

your kid's favorite animal for a trip to the zoo

******

I decided to make camper {aka Airstream} shirts for my boys since that is going to be our mode of transportation for this roadtrip, and I think they turned out SUPER cute. I especially love the silhouette of the Airstream on the tie dye shirts...kind of has a hippie feel:) You can also make a girly version of this shirt, but since I don't have any girls to make shirts for you'll have to check out my friend Liz's cute camper shirt.

I didn't do a step by step for this shirt {mostly because I have a million things on my to do list and I didn't have time to stop and take pictures at every step} so you can check out my other crafty T-SHIRT tutorials to get more detail on how to make cute Roadtrip T-shirts for your next trip!