Suitcase Light Box and Art Supply Holder

When you're the parent of a baby you have to gather all sorts of things with you before you travel. You'll need the diaper bag, diapers, formula, bottles - it's quite a list. If you're an artist who draws it's the same way; you have to pack pencils, pens, and many other art supplies. But when you pack your suitcase to accommodate your art supplies, you'll only have to pack once. Build a light box inside a suitcase and you have a travel art center, complete with an area to store your supplies. Don't worry that you won't be able to build it; it will be no trouble at all.

Purchase a small suitcase and you can turn it into a useful light box and art supply holder. The best suitcase is a hard-shell type. You can often find these at thrift stores and flea markets for a couple of bucks.

Purchase acrylite at a home improvement store to make the surface of the light box. The acrylite is normally sold to cover certain light sources in a house. It's sold by the panel and can be cut by a place who does glass work. Open the top of the suitcase and measure the perimeter of the suitcase itself - not the lid. Have the acrylite cut to those measurements, and have the corners rounded.

Some hard-shell suitcases feature a metal lip that goes around the inside of the suitcase. If yours has that lip the acrylite can simply be set upon it. If the suitcase doesn't have this feature you can create a lip around the inside perimeter of the suitcase by using hot glue to attach small-diameter dowels around the top area of the inside of the suitcase.

Before laying the acrylite on the suitcase, put a tap light or other battery-operated light system on the inside bottom of the suitcase. Use hot glue or even double-sided tape to secure the light.

With the suitcase open, and the handle facing you, glue a length of ribbon to the side that's facing you, on the inside wall. Do the same to the opposite side of the suitcase. These ribbons can be tied across the top of the acrylite, to keep it from falling out, when you close and carry the suitcase. When traveling, lay your pad of paper on the acrylite, tie the ribbons, and you secure both the light surface as well as your tablet.

On the inside of the lid, you can carry many art supplies to use along with the light box. You can glue on containers like tins with lids, shallow cardboard boxes, ribbon or elastic loops, and other things, to create spaces for carrying colored pencils, pens, and more.

The suitcase light box is really easy to make and much cheaper than many other versions. Now, anytime you're on the go, you'll only have to grab one suitcase for your art supplies - and it's already packed.