DIY Craft and Reading Lap Desk with Storage

At a local craft store, you can buy a lap desk with little to no storage for over twenty dollars. I realized that with a little DIY action, I could customize my own lap desk for pennies on the dollar. Not only will you have a lap desk, but imagine using it to serve your loved ones breakfast in bed with. This is one of the easiest crafts I have shown how to do, that creates a very useful lap desk that will serve you well for many years to come.

The first thing to do (yes, before you gather your materials), is to envision what kind of lap desk you would like, and what features you need. I make a lot of jewelry, work with polymer clay, and scrap book, I need more of a general lap desk with one primary container.

NOW you gather your supplies.

You will need (or you can make) a small throw pillow about the size of your lap. E3000 or another super bonding craft glue (made for plastics and fabric), and a clipboard with a built-in box from an office supply store or Wal-Mart. This is a good example of what I mean, though I prefer one with a deeper container.

Now simply glue the pillow onto the bottom of the clipboard, and carefully place some encyclopedias over your lap desk for as long as your particular glue takes to cure. Make sure your books lay flat on your lap desk, as you do not want the pillow sliding off when the glue is curing.

Now you can customize your lap desk. If you would like a removable container (to wash your pillow) you can glue, sew, or iron on adhesive-backed Velcro onto your pillow and clip board, but personally I found the resulting adhesion to be too weak, especially when I am using any kind of force on the top of the lap desk, or even leaning on it too heavily. You can also add extra pockets on the side of your pillow by gluing scrap fabric to the sides of the pillows, leaving the top side of the scrap open. If you would like to hem it first for a more professional look, please do.

Enjoy your lap desk, and let me know how they come out!