"Where To?" Suitcase — Right Now Crafts (2024)

If you could go anywhere, where would it be? The beach? Mars? Mountain climbing? The Renaissance? Sounds amazing - you’ll just need to pack first. Here’s the perfect suitcase for an imaginary trip: this nifty vintage-style case you make out of a cereal box. Pack it with your ideas and pictures of things you might need: drawings or maps of your destination, clothes from the past or present, dino-digging tools, or scuba gear. You can decorate the inside or outside with more pictures (maybe magazine or catalog cut-outs) or drawings of where you’re off to. Once you’re set just close it up and go. And remember to pack your (printable) passport!

• Easy and fun to make together

• Share ideas and thoughts about other places

• Leave home anytime with imaginative play

This is lightweight luggage, meant to hold dreams and ideas, and other things you can put on paper. The closures really work, there’s a comfortable handle and an interior strap to hold things. Make one of these and you may start thinking of all the other places you could go — you have all of time, the whole universe, and any place you can imagine to choose from!

You’ll need:

• any cereal box

• another box, for parts

• scissors

• tape

• a pen, not shown!

First we’re taping the top of the cereal box closed. Put tape along the flap, and also along the short ends — like taping a carton for mailing.

Look at your box and see how it’s already shaped like a suitcase. All we need to do is separate the box into a suitcase and a lid.

Start by snipping into a corner, like here, about one grownup-finger-width away from the edge.

Put the end of your scissors into the snip you made and start cutting. You want to cut a continuous line through the top end, one side, and the bottom end of the box. End with another little snip into the remaining long side. We are leaving that last side whole to keep the lid and the suitcase together. The snips help it to bend like a hinge.

The bottom photo shows the line you’ll be cutting: starting at a snip, then across one short side (the top or bottom of the box), across the long side, across the other short side, and ending with another snip into the hinge side.

Open the lid of your suitcase a little way. Set the hinge side against a table edge and press against the table edge from the inside. This makes the bend straighter and sharper.

If anything tears it’s easy to fix with more tape!

You can also tape down any loose flap ends you notice inside the box now that it’s open.

Open the bottom of the second box, flatten it, and cut the flaps off one end. Then cut a strip about 1-1/2” wide (two grownup finger-widths). Your strip has two folds in it. Cut a piece about 2” long from one folded end. Cut another just like it from the other folded end. These are the tabs.

Cut a wider (three finger-widths) strip, and cut two single-thickness strips like in the last photo. These are the buckles.

Open the lid and tape the buckles to the front of the main part of the suitcase (bottom picture). Tape each buckle to the box securely on the bottom and sides, leaving the top edge open. That’s where the tabs will slide in.

Slide a tab fold-first inside each of the buckles. Close the lid of the suitcase, behind the tabs. Adjust the tab so its top edge is even with the suitcase. Gently bend the top of the buckle out of the way, and tape the top of the tab to the lid. Tape the other tab the same way. Then open the lid and put some more tape on so they’re good and strong.

The tabs should slide into the space between the suitcase and the buckle. Go ahead and give opening and closing it a try!

Cut another narrow strip (like for the tabs) about 6” long and bend it like this with room for your fingers inside the handle.

Tape it to the suitcase between the buckles.

To make the inside ticket-and-passport-holder, tape the ends of another narrow strip to the inside of the lid, 2-3” from the hinge (click here to print out a pretend passport and ticket!)

Your suitcase is ready! If you like, to make the handle more comfortable you can squeeze it to bring the edges upward, like in the picture.

Fill the inside with pictures of things you’ll need on your trip, like clothes, tools, cars, planes, river rafts, butterfly nets, camels, or a toothbrush and PJs. This is an imaginary trip so pictures of things are all you need to pack.