 I found this suitcase while going to garage sales with mom and I thought it would make a perfect suitcase for Cole to visit the grandparents. He has already had many a sleep over and I wanted him to have his own special bag to pack. It’s just the right size for a couple of days of vacation from mom and dad. I wanted to show the process of taking it from sad to super fun. I lucked out because on Cricut craft room there was a travel cartridge for free while I was making the suitcase which was perfect for his case. For more of my repurposed suitcases click here.
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| Before and After: Going to Grandma’s House Suitcase |
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| Before…the hardware was pretty sad so I was going to have to fix that first thing |
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| The insides were just peeling off so easily which is a very good thing…I don’t think I show this step but peel all of the insides out first thing to make sure there are no surprises before you put too much time into it. Usually if it’s falling apart it’s better off in the trash. If you have a semi-smooth surface inside you will probably be ok. |
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| This was after I spray painted the hardware white. I did the whole thing to prime it for painting. |
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| I painted the entire suitcase white with acrylic paint. It’s ok if some gets on the hardware since it’s the same color but try to avoid it. |
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| All white…it’s kinda cute just like that |
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| Use painter’s tape to mark off the edges. I didn’t want to paint these this time. |
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| I wanted to do a simple navy blue stripe so I just used the painter’s tape to mark it and made sure it was all pressed down really good |
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| This was after several coats of blue. Use a stencil brush and lots of thin layers to prevent the paint from bleeding under the tape. |
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| I decided to use some leftover fabric and all I did was decoupaged it in and then covered it with several layers of decoupage to seal it. |
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| When I was done with the fabric…wow I had made quite the little mess! |
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| I ran out of fabric (if you want the truth) so I decided to cover the ugly border with this great chevron ribbon. I just hot glued it in a little bit at a time. |
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| All done with the inside |
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| Here are all of my little graphics that I printed out on my Cricut. This was a cartridge that was free that day and I can’t remember what it was called but it was something about travel. It had TONS of great phrases and pictures. |
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| Lay the graphics on the outside where you want them and start decoupaging. Make sure you do several coats if you want the suitcase to be durable and kid proof. Something fun I did was put both sets of grandparents on each side. Nonna and Grandpa (my parents) were on one side with the Highway 285 sign (which is the road by their house). |
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| On this side I did Gabby and Papa G (Dane’s parents) and I 40 which runs through their town. |
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| After you are done decoupaging, you could add some ribbon for more color. I had these two and thought they would be perfect. Just cut to the right sizes, fold the raw edges under, and hot glue in place. |
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| I added a bow just for a little extra. I also hot glued the same ribbon around the handle. Just use lots of glue to make sure it stays put. |
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| All done and ready for a trip. |
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| We left the day I finished this case for a trip to see all of the grandparents in one weekend so we packed in our new suitcase. Everything fit…except the diapers, wipes, food, etc. haha |
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| I think he likes it! |
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| He’s waving bye bye…he’s ready to go! |
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