Take a old run down suitcase and turn it into something spooky Great for storage after the holidays

TRICK

OR

TREAT

MAKE AN OLD SUITCASE INTO HALLOWEEN STORAGE
for your costume and other delicate decorations. Bring it out next year and use it as a Halloween prop!

This is a wood suitcase that had rich brown leather over it, I found it in a dump , it had black electric tape and crispy yellowed masking tape, the inside lining with filled with moth holes IT WAS PREFECT to convert into a Halloween suitcase.

wonderful old wood vintage suitcase, this is the condition that I found it in. I thought the color, the tape, holes and what not were prefect for a Halloween suitcase


The inside has a great eerie green with holes that show an under tone of Orange again prefect for my theme. the bottom had a cream piece of cardboard added at some point of time. The lining was coming off in many spots and needed repair.

I lay down the images with lots of mod podge covering completely back and front.

While shopping at my all time favorite store TJ MAXX I found these black and orange vintage inspired napkins and a set of a banner that read trick or treat also vintage themed. these were the bias for my design.

Ingredients
1. lots of MOD PODDGE

2.Acrylic paints
3.Glitters
4.fabrics and trim
5. Paper
6. Embellishments

Here is my artists box ( a big construction tool chest) that I use to store ( and lock when I had my gallery) of paints. Quite an investment. I can usually see the color in my minds eye that I want and dig until I find it or the colors to mix to create it.

These are the paints that I chose and used. Golden paints artist grade are the highest quality and are my favorite paints to use. The applying paints is a very important process in my work, it adds depth, color , and with the Halloween suitcases, I can age them, make them look even older and more run down with the magic of paint.

This is only one case of my glitters, these all have a liquid base to them which I use to mix with my other dry glitters, my favorites are from the MARTHA Stewart line.



These are the glitters that I used and combination of liquid and dry, golds and one black.



I mix the glitters much like paint and apply them with brushes.

The under side or bottom is allways addressed in my work, this case had a large base, here you can see that I have applied the paper napkins, distressed them a bit.



I have added to the bottom vintage inspired black and orange napkins and a creepy skull image I cut from one of my many books that I keep for my work. I glued first all the sides that needed repair and gave it a cleaning. The treatment, a bit of freebrez


The varnish is another important and necessary step, I choose sometimes water based or oil based depending on the project, for this case I am using water based. I put this on after it is completely dry .

I also apply apants and glitters to the inside, in this case I adore the torn worn element of the natural condtion of this suitcase

The most fun part of all my suitcase art projects is adding the trim and in this case the jewel embellishments. I added this glorious trim to only the top so when you lay it down it is not effected.
I also added several old black and white photos (from a book) with creepy frames.