DIY Suitcase Dog Bed

DO-IT-YOURSELF DOG BED OUT OF AN OLD SUITCASE

I have seen tons of ideas for suitcase dog (or cat) beds over the years. After finally finding a suitcase in good shape, a decent price, and big enough to fit my medium sized dog, I decided I would give it a try myself!

Materials include:

Suitcase (I found mine at a resale shop)

batting or foam (I actually used both)

Fabric

Sewing Machine

L-Brackets

Time Spent: 1-2 hours.

To make it easy, I decided to make a slip-covered type pillow to fit inside of the suitcase instead of adhering anything to the inside. This meant there was less time spent on the project and it will give me the ability to change the fabric easily without ripping apart the foam or the inside lining of the suitcase.

Steps I used:

Clean the outside of the suitcase well.

Measure the dimensions of the inside of the suitcase where the end pillow will be placed.

Measure the foam and cut to desired length.

BIG TIP::

My grandmother once taught my mom (who taught me) that the easiest way to cut foam is to use an electric kitchen knife.

See... cuts like butter. It took NO TIME at all with a very precise cut.

Since I had extra batting lying around, I wrapped the cut foam with it to give a little extra cushion. This also allowed for the end product to be very fitted to the bed in case the foam was cut a little shorter than needed.

To make the slipcover, sew 3 sides of the measured fabric right sides facing each other. Allow for enough room in the seams to properly fit the cushion.

Once the 3 sides of the fabric were sewn, flip the fabric right side up and stuff the padding material inside. To close the slipcover, I did a simple whip-stitch by hand.

When the pillow is finished, it should fit snug inside of the suitcase.

To finish, attach L-brackets on the back of the suitcase next to the existing hinges. This is to insure that the lid stays in place for the safety of the animals.

Wah-Lah!

Here is Gypsy Blu, my miniature Aussie with her new bed!

And this is Scooter. My 13 year old Scottie-schnauzer mix. She was a much better model than Gypsy... Scooter tends to be a little more calm when you beg her to pose for pictures.

DIY Prints for Your Home!

Recently, I have been searching, buying and framing artwork to hang on the bare walls of my apartment. Unfortunately I don't have enough spending money to buy all the cute ones off of Etsy and I sometimes find quotes on Pinterest, in books, or on etsy that I love and wish I could find in print form. Now there is a solution:

I found this tutorial from Kate at Centsational Girl that gives detailed instructions on how to make cute prints in the comfort of your home which can be used to either print at home or even try a printing company such as Kinko's or Vista Print.

photo taken with Instagram. @ccam12

Google’s free software Picasa is nice and easy to use for simple artwork. There were a few things that I wish I could have done without using Picasa's sister Picnik that I couldn’t figure out how to do but I found ways to get what I wanted in the end.

Here is a screen shot of my Home is where my dog is print.

One thing that I don’t really like about Picasa is that there is not a specific button that allows you to change the background. What the software does have, however, is “more option” tabs that allow you to change the color, contrast, or tweak the colors in a number of ways. To get the background I wanted for my print, I used the “Duo-tone” option which allowed me to choose a background and foreground color. I liked this since It would allow for easy changes to colors once you have finished text and picture positioning.

Another thing that I wanted to do with my prints was to add a photo but I could not figure out how to copy and paste or insert clip art onto the Picasa editor. Instead, I downloaded wingding fonts that would allow me to use pictures in place of words.

Here are two of my new prints to hang in my apartment:

2012 New Year’s Resolutions.

Home is where your dog is.
Want this print? Download it HERE for an 8x10 size.

Fonts Used for this print: Dandelion in the spring (font)
Puppins (dog wingding)

If you are looking for some cute fonts for free to make your own, here are some of my free font sites and blogs:

free fonts from StarSunflowerStudio

Free Scrapbook Fonts by Kevinandamanda

I also like to google search "free fonts" and in the case of the Puppins dog font, I googled "free dog font" and found tons that would make for super cute prints!