Hatbox Luggage Makeover...

A few weeks back, I picked up this hatbox luggage piece for $1.99 at my local Goodwill in the hopes of giving it a make over so that I could use it for additional storage in my craft room. By the way, I looked up this piece of luggage on ebay and they wanted $26 for it.

Also, if you haven't visited Magpie Ethel's blog, she shared her vintage suitcases & doll trunk collection on this post. I'd like to say my hatbox luggage makeover was inspired by her glorious collection.

I gave it a thorough cleaning and filled in the interior with dryer sheets to give it a fresher smell. I then began to scour my supplies for something to mod podge on the front of my suitcase. I came across this scrap of birthday wrapping paper that I had been saving. Feel free to left-click on the photo to enlarge the image so that you can save it for your own crafting projects.

Believe it or not, this piece of wrapping paper is from one of my own childhood birthday parties. Not sure which birthday, but I just love the graphics and my mother hung onto a few scraps of wrapping paper that I had saved in a box of childhood items. I didn't have enough of the wrapping paper to cover the entire suitcase, so I decided to use some of my coffee stained pages from a book as the first base coat. I also scanned the wrapping paper image so that I could keep the original piece.

I started by applying a layer of mod podge on the front of the suitcase.

I then began to layer the book pages, adding more glue as I went along.

I trimmed the wrapping paper images and then added them to the front of the suitcase with additional mod podge.

To speed up the drying time, I set the suitcase in front of a fan. To finish it up, I added some lace cord with my glue gun and attached a daisy flower to the handle.

My hatbox is now paired with this child's piece which is filled with doll clothes.

While we're talking about luggage, I also have a suitcase on the other side of my craft room which is filled with vintage sheet music that I use with special paper projects.

My Asian collections are perched on top of the suitcase and my 45 albums are down below. Josie's favorite thing to do in my craft room is to listen to my story book record albums.

Have a thrifty/crafty weekend!
XOXO

♥