DIY Camera Handstrap

I am headed to England in about 17 days. This will be my very first time leaving North America. I am so crazy excited that I want to go pack my bags right now. OK..... I actually already started putting my toiletries in travel size bottles and packing the ready ones in my quart size zippered bag.
I am going with 6 other ladies in my church bookclub. We plan to visit all sorts of places, including some Jane Austen tours, towns and museums, castles, gardens, old houses. We are visiting Glastonbury Tor because we read the book. "Glastonbury Tor". Should be so neat to see it. Our schedule is jam packed and we will be there for about 10 days. Eeeeeeeee! I cant wait! Look at the cottage we are staying in!

I will be taking tons of pictures, no doubt, so I will be carrying my DSLR as well as my little purse size camera, along with lots of memory cards. I bought (yes I know I could have made it) this bag insert, and I believe it will work nicely. I plan to put it down in the bottom of a big sack like purse. 
Now I dont know about you, but I hate those neck straps that come with cameras. I jazzed mine up, but to me a neck strap gets in the way and I never really used it. I thought a hand strap would work much better for me. I dont care to carry it around my neck, and get punched in the gut every time I take a step. I also dont care to scream tourist.

 

(Oh mercy I can't believe I just posted this pic of me)

I considered buying a hand strap but then in the back of my mind I recalled seeing directions on making one on Photojojo... please visit that site if you love photography stuff. They ROCK!

 Their directions for making a "Dashing DIY Handstrap" are super easy to follow and super easy to make. Here is my new strap.

 Man its hard to take a picture of my right hand holding a camera with my left hand and trying to make it look good. 

 I bought black webbing and took their suggestion to add ribbon. I just used Crafters Pick- The Ultimate to glue it onto the webbing. Fabulous stuff!

I found the slide at JoAnn in the notions section. It was gold so I spray painted it black to match. I decided to go with the metal slide because it seemed more sturdy to me.

Here are a few things I did differently. I decided to use a cotton  webbing instead of polyester. Its much softer on my girly hands. Since I used cotton I couldn't melt the ends. Instead I dipped the ends in Mod Podge. It worked perfectly!

 

In their instructions they said to use a 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch long bolt. It took lots of searching (they had a bazillion nuts and bolts), but I found these at Lowes and they are 1/4 long. Also, the top is nice and flat. I didnt need to use the nuts and washers that they recommended since my bolt was shorter. 

  

See! Nice slim profile. I think I like mine better than theirs.

 

It was so fast and easy to make. I know it was only a few bucks (or less) for materials, I just didnt take the time to add it up.  Thanks for checking it out.