Sunday, August 25, 2013

Tutorial time! How to make a nail polish case

Hi girls! I've had so many questions about my nail polish case and its many updates, I've decided to do a tutorial! Some people asked me where to buy it, but that's the thing, I made it myself. I had an old aluminum suitcase laying around that used to be my grandpa's. He used it to transport CD's but he passed away a couple of years ago, so it felt like a tribute to my grandpa to re-purpose it. I also made this nail art supply case.

What you'll need:
- A suitcase
- Soft foam
- Any kind of fabric
- Elastic bands
- Head pins

You'll also need a craft knife, something to protect your work space, a pair of scissors, glue and a set of crafty hands.

Okay, let's get to work!


You can use any suitcase you want, any size or material that is convenient for you. The case I was using was lined with a thin layer of hard foam, so I started by removing that. There was wood underneath it. I left the sides intact because that foam was covering up some nasty looking glue residue.

Take the measurements of your suitcase and write them down. The foam you're going to cut in the next step will be flexible so it doesn't have to be exact, but the fabric will also take up space and the more precise the size is, the better it'll fit.

There's a good chance that both sides of the suitcase don't have the exact same measurements, like mine, so take note of that.
Take your large sheet of foam. When buying foam, check out how much space you have in your suitcase. You need to be able to close the suitcase without the bottles touching eachother, so measure your largest bottle of polish and then subtract that from the depth of the suitcase. If you have more than 1 cm left (about 0,4 inches), you're good, that'll work fine.

When you have your foam ready, cut two pieces to the measurements of your suitcase. Note for the dummies: make sure you put something underneath so you don't cut into your table/flooring/anything else that you're working on. Unless that's already ruined ofcourse, then go right ahead!

Next, take your fabric and put the foam on it. Cut around the foam, leaving a generous margin around it. You're going to wrap the fabric around the foam, so you'll need at least enough to cover the sides and fold all the way to a bit of the bottom, like in the picture.

When you've wrapped it, secure it with pins. Now you can just glue these two foam panels into your suitcase!
Tadaa! It's starting to look like a real polish case already! The look of the case is dependent on what kind of fabric you use. I used black fleece because I had a large piece left over from another project and it looks pretty. I would recommend against using anything with a pattern because the colors of your bottles wouldn't come out right, but any color you want will be fine. I like 'quiet' colors like black, white and grey, because they go with just about everything.

Let's continue to the next and final step!
This is the last step before you can start to use your polish case.

Use your head pins to fasten your elastic band to the lining of the case you just made. Stick them in the foam like in the picture on the right. I do it like this, because the polish bottles need to be held snugly and that will put strain on this construction. The pins slip out too easily if you just use one.

Do this for the whole suitcase, or at least for all the bottles you want to carry in it, and you're done!
This is a really convenient way to move all your bottles, because you can change it often and still see the bottles from the side with all the pretty colors *ahhh* I used to store all of my bottles this way but my stash quickly grew too large.

If anything is unclear or you have any questions, just leave a comment below and I'll answer it! Thanks for watching!

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