Travel Drawing Easel

Get your child’s creative juices flowing with this handy travel drawing station! Standing like a mini easel, this drawing station holds up to 20 colour pencils/markers, and a good stack of folded A4 papers. Easy to set up, and easy to clean up—just fold it, tie it, and carry it!

What you need

PDF Pattern*
Main fabric (we are using yellow polkadot fabric)
Inner fabric (ours is pink)
Ribbon for the ties and handle
Flat elastic band
Heavy interfacing*
2 pieces of 10 1/8 inches x 6 6/8 inches cardboard*

Instructions

Notes:

1. Print Travel Drawing Easel Pattern without any page scaling, and attach them in the following order:

A1, A2

B1, B2

C1, C2

2. Heavy interfacing is optional if your fabric is thick enough like canvas fabric.

3. We are using plastic corrugated cardboard, but you may substitute it with regular corrugated board or any other sturdy board

Step 1 : Body A1

Cut fabric according to pattern instructions, and mark the spots for the elastic band on Body A1.

With the fabric right side up, pin elastic across Body A1 according to the your markings.

3/8 inches from the left edge, start marking below the elastic every 1 inch. These markings are where you will be top stitching later to create “containers” for your colour pencils to sit in.

Optional: On the wrong side of the fabric, iron on a strip of interfacing right beneath where the elastic sits. This strengthens the fabric and prevents it from pulling since the elastic will stretch slightly while holding the colour pencils.

Top stitch on the 1 inch markings you made earlier to hold the elastic down. You may either knot the ends or simply backstitch them so that they do not unravel.

Fold the bottom hem under (approximately 3/8 inches), and stitch [see next image].

Step 2: Body A2

Optional: Iron on a strip of interfacing onto the top hem (wrong side of fabric).

With the fabric wrong side up, fold down the top hem approximately 3/8 inches and stitch.

This is what you should have on the right side of the fabric

Step 3: Body B

Fold fabric into half lengthwise, and mark the fold.

Open up the fabric, and pin ribbon onto the fold you marked, so that the ribbon is centered vertically on the fabric. Add some extra length in the middle of the ribbon so that it becomes a handle.

Cut 2 strips of ribbon measuring 13 inches each. Pin them onto the center of the bottom hem, as well as the top hem. These will be your ribbon ties.

You will now have what looks like a present!

Step 4: Attaching the pieces together

At the bottom of the hem, place Body A1 on top of Body B, right sides together. The stitched edge of Body A1 must be on top. Line up raw edges.

Similarly, at the top of the hem, place Body A2 on top of Body B. Both stitched edges of Body A1 & A2 must meet, and may overlap very slightly. This will be the opening of the pocket for the paper to be placed in.

Pin all around, and stitch.

When you reach the corners, just keep sewing in a straight line, and start a new stitch 90 degrees in the other direction. You may also curve the edge if you like.

Carefully turn it inside out from the opening.

Press the edges flat, and top stitch all around.

Insert both cardboard pieces through the opening (trim if necessary). These cardboard pieces enable the drawing station to stand like an easel.

And you’re done!

Fold a stack of A4 papers into half and slide one half of the stack into the opening.

If your colour pencils/marker pens are slim, you may be able to fit 2 at a time.

Use your travel drawing station flat like a book!

Or prop it up like an easel for your little artist

Tip: To keep the easel standing sturdily, bring the ribbon tie across to the other side and simply tie a bow [see next image].

Traveling with kids can be a joyful and exciting experience; however, when kids are around there will always be some amount of frustration when thet start to get bored and irked with the long drive. Some parents bring long with them different kinds of toys and technical devices in order to keep the children entertained.

Mothers know best what their children need and they are often prepared beforehand since from experience she knows how disappointing it is to travel with someone crying and fretting continuously. If the trip entails riding on a plane, then there is more need for preparation and planning. With all the various entertainment facilities that airlines provide for children, there will always be some amount of fear and apprehension with the long hours they will be spending inside the aircraft.

Flight attendants are usually concerned with the children’s comfort and would always be handy to provide their assistance. Families who travel to a far destination that often takes a few hours on a plane should know the signs when the children are starting to feel bored and restless. There are many choices to divert their minds from the long travel and some of these are the technological devices like the cameras, the PSP or iPods.

It is also important to take particular attention on the needs of the children for food. If there is an infant with you onboard, then it is recommended to prepare the feeding bottles lest you suffer from endless crying and irritate the other passengers as well. It is also important to consider bringing along a change of clothes in the hand carry should the children need a change of clothing. Children often suffer from airsickness especially if they are not used to traveling for long hours on an airplane.

Traveling with kids can be easy if you are in your own vehicle. You can just make as stopover at a food joint in case they get hungry. If they get bored, the vehicle can be parked to allow them some time to walk around to ease the leg cramps. Sitting on a vehicle for hours is not any easy thing to do. Having some music on the vehicle can lull the children to sleep which will make the travel very convenient for all. Children can be fun to be with but not when they crave for the comfort of home. Make them feel that traveling is fun and exciting more than what they will experience if they just stay within the shelter of home.