For someone who drops everything once they have a few drinks in them, Nicole Kelner’s Smart Purse is the solution to fishing your phone out of toilet bowls or solo cups. It’s also ideal for those who are constantly losing their bag/phone at social gatherings. In fact, Kelner created the first Smart Purse last semester out of sheer necessity.

“I kept leaving my bag places because I would always have my phone on me or in my back pocket,” says Kelner, stating that she just couldn’t remember to grab all of her scattered belongings.

When she discovered that there wasn’t any sort of purse that would let her use her phone while in the bag on the market, Kelner taught herself how to sew and created her first Smart Purse by hand.

The Smart Purse is your conventional hand bag with the addition of a clear screen fold out that securely fits your cellphone. It has the convenient currency capacity of a wallet, plus the added ability to text, Tweet, or drunk dial on the fly. Kelner makes bags for iPads, Kindles, Droids, iPhones 4, 4S and 5, and plans to make them for iPad minis.

Since June, her Etsy store has become really successful, and she’s made quite a few sales. As far as the Penn State community, however, she hasn’t really begun to market towards our own student body, seeing how Etsy makes marketing to the online community so simple. Even so, she hopes to eventually make smart purses designed for various sororities, as well as other organizations on campus.

Kelner has not only been making a pretty decent profit, but is also pursuing her long-time passion for designing. She is happy to have married the two.

Oh, and did I mention part of her proceeds go to THON?

You can check out the NKD page here, the Etsy store here, and her Pinterest page here.