purse to camera bag tutorial

Last week, I spent part of one of my days off making some custom-fit padding to turn a purse into a camera bag.  

And now I finally have a moment to share the how-to with you!

It all started with this bag I picked up on sale at Target

Originally,  I thought the front pockets would be perfect for holding lenses.  The problem: this purse lacked any type of padding to protect my little camera from bumps and bruises.

A quick search on Pinterest turned up a few tutorials that seemed easy enough.  Mostly I followed this one from Make It & Love It.

I started off with a trip to my local fabric and craft store to pick up some coordinating fabric, padding, and Velcro.

 The padding I chose is Fairfield's Soft n Crafty NU-Foam premium densified batting.  

Start by cutting a piece of pad to fit the bottom of your bag.  I just lined the pad with the bottom outside of the bag and snipped for the length and width then continued cutting at the snips to cut the entire rectangle.

Then cut a length of pad to fit the entire perimeter of the inside of your bag--I had to cut mine in two sections due to the size of the padding.

Dry fit the pad into your bag and make adjustments if needed.

Next, cut the fabric large enough to cover your pad pieces.  I left a good inch around the edges and cut along a fold to give a nice finished edge (and to have less to sew).

Before you sew the cover of the perimeter pad, you'll want to stitch on your Velcro strips.  I placed the strips (soft side) so they would be on the long sides of my bag and sewed around the entire edges of all four strips.

Fold fabric pieces right sides together and stitch, leaving an opening to turn your fabric and insert the padding.  Do this for both the bottom and side pieces.

To make the dividers, I followed Make It & Love It's directions (and forgot to snap pics!).  I didn't even bother stitching the base to the sides because I'm a lazy hand-stitcher it all stays together snuggly once inside the bag.

This project took under 2 hours (it would have been a lot faster, but my sewing machine and I had a couple of battles and I had to show it who was boss).  I'm thrilled with the result of a cute and trendy camera bag without the boutique price tag {materials: $15 + bag: $20 = total cost: $35}.

Happy Sewing!

a little bit of nothing

Probably not the smartest idea to title a blog post with that title.  

Ummm, yeah, here I am and I have nothing at all to say.

OK, that's not entirely true.  Maybe I should have said "a little bit of something."

Let's just get on with it...

Playing

I discovered PicMonkey tonight.  Very fun little photo editing site--super easy to navigate and tons of options for editing.  Here's one that I created:

And here's the before, SOOC shot:

Creating

The boys went back to school today and that left me with a bit of creative time, so I worked on a mini album using the May Elite kit.

Here's a little Instagram sneak:

Hoping to have more sneaks up later in the week.  

Shopping

I went to my favorite store,

 over the weekend (alone!) and treated myself to a new latte mug:

Buy

Drinking a latte out of a beautiful mug makes mornings (even rainy Monday ones) happy and sunshiny.

So see, I did have a little bit of something to say.  Now you can play around with PicMonkey, be on the lookout for some new projects, and buy yourself a pretty mug.

Aren't you glad you stopped by for a visit?!

Happy Monday!

What's making me happy today:

fresh warm air coming through open windows

creating art

this boy and his imagination

beautiful messes

beautiful tulips from a friend smiling wide for the sun

crochet blanket that's coming along

new art for the kitchen

What's making you happy today?

12 on the 12th in 2012: February

Here are my photos for this month's Take 12 challenge.  Used Instagram again.

one

the bathroom window

two

morning coffee

three

the drive to church

four

weaving in ends

five

I have the best job

six

Maddox reading us a story

seven

planning the week

eight

off to hockey

nine

dinner out

ten

waldorf salad

eleven

creme brûlée cheesecake

twelve

Grammy night

It was a good day (heck, any day I don't have to cook dinner is a good day!)

Now I need to get my butt in gear and make layouts for these two months.

I have found some great inspiration on Pinterest:

Source: findingnana.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: jessicasprague.com via Elisabeth on Pinterest

Source: gallerystandouts.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: likethecar.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Source: scrappyjedi.com via Michelle on Pinterest

And there's a Flickr group with lots of inspo, too.

If you're doing Take 12, leave a message so I can check out your photos!

12 on the 12th in twenty12: January

Ella Publishing has issued a little challenge that you might have heard about {but in case you haven't, click here}

I'm all over it (well it's a new year filled with possibilities, right?).  12 photos once a month for 12 months--I can manage that.

Here are today's (taken with Instagram and put into these cute little collages with the PicFrame (formerly Photo Frame) app

 1) it snowed!  the view of our backyard
2) Maddox making a snowman
3) my first vanilla cafe au lait made at home with new milk steamer/frother
4) Logan enjoying an after school snack of hot chocolate made with steamer

5) chili for dinner
6) cafe mocha from Panera during book club
7) sign at Panera: Make Today Better; Take a Risk
8) book club location for this month

9) at a stop light on the way home
10) catching the end of the B's on the couch with Perry
11) a day is not complete without a check on Pinterest
12) time for bed

It was fun documenting the day.
Things I noticed: the tail end of my day is more picture heavy as I realized I was running out of time to take photos--8 of my pics were taken after 6 pm and only 1 was taken between 9 and 3.  Food is a big part of our day: 4 food related pics--3 of them hot beverages--we love our hot drinks!  You really can capture memories with whatever camera you have on you at the moment.

Looking forward to next month.

a whole lotta random

I have been loving every minute of 2012 so far. 

Last week my new boyfriend arrived.  I affectionately refer to him as Mac Daddy:

Isn't he sooooo cute?  Well, most of my free time has been spent getting to know each other.  You know, which buttons to push when, loading him up with all my photos and files, and exploring his little hidden secrets.  He is super strong and powerful, yet gentle for my non-Mac brain.  Every day I learn something new that I just love about him.  His ability to recognize all my family and friends (the Faces feature in iPhoto--amazing!), how he so easily hooks up with the things I need (connecting to my wireless printer took 1 minute 45 seconds, seriously!), and he loves my touch (um, yeah, the Trackpad is super fabulous, fast, and intuitive).  Yup, it's safe to say I am head-over-heels-in love.  And I'm looking forward to many years of bliss together.

I've also been on a cleaning/organizing tear--blaming it on the New Year.  Cleaning out the freezer, pantry, spice cabinet, junk mail, china cabinet, medicine bins.  Nothing is safe from my white tornado.  And knowing how temporary these things can be, I am taking full advantage before my motivation runs out.

I think I've decided to do Project365 this year. {ok, so this post is really all over the map}  Not going to over-think the whole thing.  Many of the photos will be taken with Instagram.  Not sure exactly what I'll do with the pictures, but I'm taking baby steps with this.  Maybe I'll do a mini album, or a Project Life album, or just post them to my blog.  Maybe some stroke of inspirational genius will hit me (most likely while browsing Pinterest).  But until then I'll just be snapping my Photo-A-Day.

Here's the first week:

one . one

one . two

one . three

one . four

one . five

one . six

one . seven

one . eight

one . nine

Anyone else doing a 365/52/12 type project?

OK, this concludes this totally random post about a whole lotta nothing.  And I also know that I still owe you two more Gifts of Christmas.  Don't think that hasn't been hanging over my head for the past week.  I'll get them up soon, promise.  

Yippee for my first blog post done entirely with my new Mac Daddy!