I made Honey Lemon’s purse for my niece a couple of months ago.

Unfortunately, my phone had a hardware failure resulting in losing all of my progress photos. I will try my best to comment on how I made it in hopes it will help anyone else ready to tackle making a chemistry bag!

I studied blee456’s Imgur album several times and made note of his comments. He did an amazing job of making the purse for his daughter, and the reference photos made life much easier for me.

Ball port: I went with small ball pit balls for my purse. They are a good size for my teenage niece (they would probably be too big for a small child). The bonus was they were very easy to cut with an exacto to slide onto the strap. I ordered these from Amazon as they included the correct colours.

Once I received the balls, I determined I would need about a 3″ ball port. I bought a 3″ PVC pipe cap and spray painted it black. This then determined the approximate size of the purse. I attached one small magnet to the ball and one inside the center of the ball port.

Tip: Honey Lemon pulls the balls out from the front of the purse, so check which hip the “thrower” will be throwing from to determine which side will be out front when worn.

Bear side: while researching Honey Lemon costume tutorials, I stumbled across this great tutorial by KikiCraft for Honey Lemon’s phone case. I found an old smartphone and made it as a bonus for my niece right away!

The phone case worked out so well I ended up using the same technique to make the bear for the backside of the purse.

Front panel

Lucky for us, there are many people who have already duplicated the heart panel which can be found with a Goggle search. I printed it on thick brochure paper and on printable transparency film (make sure you buy the proper film for inkjet or laser printers). I stacked it with the brochure paper in the back, the printed transparent film in the middle, and a blank transparent film over top just to protect the printed image underneath.

*TIP: If doing this again, I would print the panel with plenty of black around the heart shape. In printing it like shown, I struggled to cut and mount the EVA foam so that no white was showing.

I apologize that all the template photos, etc were on the old phone. Here is what I did:

1. I made a template out of paper: one piece for the bottom, one piece for the sides (cut twice-one with the port hole), and one to bend around the frame serving as the front & back.
2. I cut the pieces out of EVA foam. Punished Props has an excellent foam buying guide. For this project I used anti-fatigue roll matting which is thicker for more support but more difficult to cut through the bottom patterning.
3. I started pinning together the foam to make adjustments and start guiding where to glue, using a high temperature glue gun. It is best to heat and shape the bend first, as your heating gun can melt the glue later on
4. I used spray adhesive to affix orange craft foam over the EVA foam.

*TIP: Craft foam smudges and dents easily. Next time I will cover the craft foam with a protectant such as Mod Podge or spray paint the orange instead.

Blee456 mentioned he wished he had put in an access panel in the back. I cut a huge square in the back of the EVA foam & made a flap with the orange foam for access and attached with adhesive velcro. This way I assembled the purse first and then mounted the ball port and lighting.

I ended up finding an orange strap on the cheap by buying a cheap crossbody bag with the orange strap and just cutting it off.

Amazon sells these great battery powered LED lights that are low-heat and have a remote control! I tested them first by leaving them on several minutes at a time to over an hour. Closely monitor this to avoid setting your house on fire.

Inside the final purse is a piece of styrofoam holding up the ball port, and lights duct taped in to prevent them from touching the panel, the battery pack taped to the front for easy on/off, and storage for the remote and some personal belongings!

I hope this helped! Please comment with any questions! I’m glad to help!