do it yourself – Basil's Travels

February 1, 2016

Make it Monday! DIY Vintage Suitcase Dog Bed!

The weekend may be over but don’t let Monday get you down. Lets get creative! Today on Make it Monday! Basil, and I, with the help of my brother in-law Jake, turned a super cute vintage suitcase into a new unique dog bed.

What you need!

Hard case suitcase. (I found this yellow Samsonite case at an antique store for $9!)
4 short table legs. (The ones we used were actually banister toppers found at a hardware store. The leg came with hardware already included.)
2 2×4 pieces of wood cut to size.
Hot glue gun or sewing machine. (My Sewing machine is currently out of order so I went the glue route and it worked just fine.)
1 yard of fabric
1 or 2 standard size pillows or square thick foam. (I used 1 pillow and a small old quilt for padding.)
Drill
Optional: Trim

DIY Vintage Suitcase Dog Bed — I told him I wouldn’t photograph his face… I lied! Oops!

Okay so if you are anything like me you probably don’t have a clue how to build things using power tools. The extant of my knowledge is limited to hanging a picture straight on the wall and using an allen wrench to put together my “affordable Swedish crap.” This is where my brother in-law Jake came into the picture. He is a construction work and has every tool under the sun. For the first part of this project, the hard part, putting on the legs, I pretty much just handed him the pieces and said “help me!” In the following pictures if you see hairy forearms, they are not mine!

Part 1: The Hard Part! Attaching the legs!

Step 1: Mark where you want to position the legs and drill holes.
Step 2: Attach the wood beams to the inside of the suitcase. These are going to act as the anchor for the legs. Make sure to position them over where you drilled the holes.
Step 3: Screw in the legs, with the already attached hardware, through the drilled holes and into the wood beams.

Part 2: The Fun Part!

Step 1: Find a cute fabric to match your case.
Step 2: Use fabric is cover your pillow/foam padding. Make a pillow case using your sewing machine or hot glue gun. FYI, they make fabric glue for your hot glue gun! It’s washable! (I’m not going to show you how to make a pillow case. Thats not fun. If you really don’t know, there is this magical thing called Google that will help you out.
Step 3: Attach your trim, if you so choose. I liked how it looked with the trim so I went for it. I used a chevon red burlap ribbon that I found at the craft store. I used my hot glue gun to glue it around the inside of the whole case.
Step 4: Insert padding and pillows!

Done!!

I put the adorable new bed in Basil’s new “dog cave” and he and our cats love it! The best part is now I have a dog bed that doesn’t look like a gross ugly dog bed!

Thanks to HGTV for the idea. If you want to see how they did it, its a little different, check it out here.

Let me know if you make this project. I would love to see your pictures!

Until next time friends! Xoxo

Travel well, nap well, live well!
-Abbey & Basil

August 3, 2015

Re-Make it Monday! DIY Dog Bow Ties!

Its Monday and life is crazy! ICYMI Check out this Make it Monday! post for DIY Dog Bow Ties. I’ll be back next Monday with a new MIM so let me know what you want me to make.

Happy Monday friends! For years Basil, being the 1st class hipster that he is, has been wearing bow ties. And for almost that same amount of time I have been purchasing him those bow ties. Okay so the cost isn’t that much each time, 1 bow tie retails for about $10-$20 but in the long run, that cost really adds up! So after buying Basil’s 20th bow tie (I know, I’m crazy!!) I figured I could make these, so I did!

Below you will find my simple DIY No Sew bow tie tutorial. Hopefully it works for you and your dog can look like a gentleman without breaking the bank! Step 1: There is a few things you’ll need!

• Large flat work area
• Hot glue gun
• Double sided Velcro
• Sharp scissors for cutting fabric
• Fabric
• Optional: elastic

The great thing about this project is most people have a lot of these craft supplies already in the their home. If you need anything on this list all of it can be found at your local craft store. I highly recommend using double-sided Velcro and it can be a little tricky to find. I ordered mine online(http://www.etsy.com) at a great deal. I also use a standard hot glue gun on the high setting. For my fabric, I found an amazing deal in the remnant fabric bin at Hobby Lobby. It was 1/8th a yard and only .59 cents! Also, I couldn’t pass up the Elvis in the 50’s pattern!

Step 2: Cut out a square!

The size I picked was about 6 inches by 6 inches. This bow tie is going to be a little large for a medium size (20 lb.) dog but that how I like it. If you want a smaller tie make the square smaller.

Step 3: Flip square over and glue edges down!

It doesn’t have to be perfect! I glued the “hot dog” sides first and then the “hamburger” sides. You really just want to make clean edges for the front of the bow tie.

Step 4: Cut a small rectangular piece for the center of the tie!

I cut a 2×6 inch piece of fabric. Make sure the length is 3 times the size of the width. I flipped the fabric over and glued the edges down like I did with the first piece of fabric.
Step 5: Pinch to make your bow tie shape!

Pinch the large square that you created, from the back, to make the bow tie shape that looks best to you. When I did this it made Elvis’s face a little weird.

Step 6: Tie the long rectangular piece around the pinched square. Knot in the back!
Make sure the fabric is laying flat on the front. Knot fabric in the back and glue flaps down. This is also a great time to glue down what doesn’t look right!

Step 7: Measure & Attach Velcro!

I grabbed one of Basil’s everyday dog collars and placed the double sided Velcro on top to see how much I needed. For a 1 inch collar I recommend at least 2 inches of Velcro.

I cut the Velcro and glued the strip on to the center, back of the bow tie. Make sure to place the glue on the soft side of the Velcro! This way the Velcro teeth can grab onto the collar as well as the other side of the strip. If you prefer to use elastic you can glue a loop of elastic band in the same spot.

Step 8: Attach to collar and look awesome!

Wrap the Velcro around the collar in your preferred area. Think about how the collar is going to hang and sit once on your pet.

Look how cute he is! This bow tie is cute, easy, and lightweight. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Show me your pictures of your creations!

Tomorrow is Travel Tuesday and the featured city is San Antonio, Texas! So make sure to check back then!

Travel well, nap well, live well!
-Abbey & Basil

July 13, 2015

Make it Monday! DIY paw print art!

Art is what you can get away with. -Andy Warhol
Happy Monday everyone! It’s so good to be back and even though we are still super busy it feels so great to be posting and sharing our adventures with all of you!

Today on Make it Monday! we got a little creative, Basil and I did some custom paw print art work. It was super easy and we had a lot of fun. I seriously love the 2 pieces we made and can’t wait to hang them in our new home!

What you need

Blank Canvas (Any size. I used square)
Non-toxic water based acrylic paint (I used Crayola washable kids paint)
A plastic shower curtain liner or painting drop cloth
Wet wipes

I found all these things at Target at a great price. I was surprised to find the canvas but I guess Target is getting pretty artsy. That worked in my favor! I decided to use the shower curtain liner as the floor covering and I couldn’t be happier. I purchased the cheapest one they had, $2.49, and it worked like a charm. The magnets those things have weighted down the sheet so when I throw it out on the lawn it stayed put, even with a bit of a summers breeze. Next all I did was set out the canvas onto the shower liner, poured out a small amount of my desired color onto the shower liner next to the canvas, and let Basil walk through it. Then I had Basil walk directly onto the blank canvas. He wasn’t super into that part but he put up with it! You can also apply paint to 1 paw and press that paw onto the canvas. We did both.

After its all said and done the clean up was a breeze. I used the wet wipes to clean the paint off Basils paws and to clean the paint off the shower liner. I thought about just throwing the liner away but we really didn’t make that much of a mess. If you have a larger dog with bigger paws I would recommend a large wet wash cloth and maybe just saying good bye to the liner.

Once back in the house (We did this all in the front yard. I’m sure my neighbors and the UPS guy were all very curious as to what was happen!) Basil got a short little puppy bath with our favorite Burt’s Bees Apple & Oatmeal dog shampoo and is now happily napping.

Here is what our final creations look like. Once they’re dry I’ll add Basil’s name to the corner. He did do the majority of the work after all!

What do you think of our art? Do you love it? I think it’s so post modern.

Let me know if you try this project and how it came out. I would love to see it!

A big thanks goes to Treats a la Bark for the original idea. I saw their take on this fun little art piece on Pinterest and had to give it a try.

Tomorrow is Travel Tuesday and I’ll be posting about Leavenworth, Washington. Make sure to check back then to learn about our favorite dog friendly spots in this little Bavarian village. Xoxo

Travel well, nap well, live well!
-Abbey & Basil