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.

Two capes from Funky findZ on line and lots of others in artfire

Youll be Fallin f...

Curated By: VintageFitfor...

ArtFire.com

Vintage Fashion

How to get to front page of ETSY? At long last an item made it to the FRONT PAGE of etsy!!

I have been to date featured in 50 treasuries which you can view here at etsy treasuries . I have only made a few myself, as they are very time consuming. I made two Halloween themed collections, Black and White Halloween , Handmade Halloween and one for Recycled Art which I included one of my own items, My Funky Suitcase. It is suggested that when you do make a collection that you do not use your own items. I dislike this suggestion very much. As I said they are very time consuming, granted they are lots of fun to make and you get to see allot of great things out in the world of etsy.

The item that made it is this mother of pearl shoe clip

It was featured in pewter and pine , which I love and also in Treasures from the sea. I use craftopolis to keep track of my items that are listed in a Treasury yet this treasury that was featured is not indicated. Furthermore, I never received any notification that I was featured. I had to search craftopolis because I noticed that my views for that day hit the roof, and specially for that item, on This Friday it received 17 hearts alone. Therefore I knew what item to look for. It is interesting to note that I did not make a sale on the day that I was listed on the front page, I had 1411 page views and 408 visitors that day. I received 13 shop hearts and 33 individual favorite hearts, with 17 going to the featured item with 285 page views for this item alone!

The shop that created the list is lillipopsdesigns
She has made 99 treasuries
I have no idea how she finds the time, nor do I know how many times her lists have been featured. I was never informed by this seller that I was featured, more than likely she does not have the time. This collection was named

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

ARTIFRE item Listed in BIZRATE

I was doing a search for a dress listing that I had lost and discovered that I had been placed on this web site. This dress is the only item that they have chosen and it is from ARTFIRE. Many stores are on this site, such as JC PENNYS and Spiegel l it appears to be a site that rates a store. What I wonder is how they picked me up. Did artfire submit? WEll my sales on artfire are slow, I only have 32 or so and hardly anyone leaves Karma, or feedback. It is not that easy of a process. What do they do? I am curious how they collect their information to make a rating.

as it stands this dress has only received about 97 views, not a crazy amount . My questions is this a new site? It does not appear to be interactive, other than allowing you to search items and see the stores rating and then go directly to the store.


On this page you can see that other stores are listed but mine is unrated when I click the Why it reads

Q:

Why is this store not yet rated?

A:

Store ratings are provided by BizRate. Not Yet Rated means that BizRate is in the process of evaluating the store but has not yet collected enough customer reviews to issue a rating. BizRate requires a minimum of 20 surveys in the past 90 days to ensure a statistically significant rating of a store's performance and not the opinion of just a handful of customers. As soon as enough valid reviews have been collected, a rating will be calculated and displayed.

REGRESTY Freind or Foe of ETSY?

This is the phone that is featured on the controversial site Regresty.com


This is an up date on a post I wrote after on of my works of Art, a rotary phone was featured on Regretsy. Initially I was devastated, my checks burned with humiliation and shame. I am 50 plus years old, yet I felt like a little girl who just wet her pants in front of the class room.

My first impulse was to join the site and begin to rant away, when I quickly realized that those posts would never hit the press sort to speak. When I discovered that all the posts were about one upping the other in a tone of criticism. I could clearly see that the intent of the site, at least initially, was to be cleaver in ones remarks, but that many posted cruel and meaningless, not funny or smart at all. I pulled up my boot straps, and resigned to be thankful for the intense increase in views.

My views, in just two months went over 2000 with 8 hearts, the phone next to it, one that was mentioned in a regretsy post which shared its link ,a vintage phone made of CANDY WRAPPERS also showed increased views, which today is at over 700 with 8 hearts.

Before being featured I did not know about regretsy, My daughters and I had a blast looking at all the art. Admittedly some we found ghastly, but most we loved. We went and visited many stores and found that many of the items had already sold. In fact we seriously considered purchasing a couple items. It is true we love bold bright kitsch and unusual things and found the site all in all a great source to find these type of items.

We did not however, enjoy reading much of the criticism of the work featured, it held no charm what so ever, as many remarks were over the top mean spirited, and not cleaver roasts at all.

I posted my thoughts and feelings on this blog and on an etsy forum and frankly forgot about it. I played with the idea of making a phone for regresty, a hot-line punk.

Then the day that changed everything. I swear that this is how it happened. My phone sits next to me at my desk. I looked up at it, and thought
"this is crap, why don't I just give up... no one wants your stuff..." you get it, a whole swarm of self deprecating thoughts swam in my mind, boo hoo the poor misunderstood artist.

The next day out with my daughters for lunch I was compelled to grab my EVO phone from sprint ( the greatest thing since sliced bread) and check my etsy store and there it was my 186 th sale was my phone, completed transaction,pay pal and all!!! Boast to my temporary fragile ego just in the nick of time.

So is regresty friend or foe?
The site is my friend indeed. In fact I hope they pick up my bloody baby dolls that we (my daughters and I ) are presently making for Halloween for sale at FUNKY FINDZ ON LINE sister store CATHYS COSTUME FINDZ

Looking for sites to help you indenity VINTAGE FASHION?

I was recently reading a post in a forum where a seller kindly gave a huge list of useful links. Here are the ones that I think are the most useful

FASHION ENCYCLOPEDIA what I don't care for however is that there are not any pictures and I tend to learn best from visuals such as found in this visual dictionary showing different dress styles .

The most useful link however is from the VINTAGE FASHION GUILD which provides a great time line on the front page and follows throw with information that is both useful and interesting. such as what I found here in the 1950 1960 category

"A female function was to entertain or attend social gatherings - all to promote and further their spouse's career. Cocktail dresses - short versions of ball gowns - were essential. A woman was expected to wear a hat outside of the house (except for the most formal evening occasions) and gloves at all times - short for day, long for evening. Men tended almost to universally wear suits. The practice of dressing young people like their elders was still common, with the 'mother/daughter' look as particularly in vogue. " Here is an example that I have in my inventory of the great cocktail dress.

dying wedding dresses into spooky costumes

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN DRESS


FINISHED BACK WITH BLACK SATIN RIBBON











TIE DYING STAINED WEDDING DRESSES INTO A SPOOKY WORK OF ART.

Vintage tie dyed Wedding dress hanging to dry.



I wish to point out the Rit dye is not recommended for none protein fabrics, such as nylon and polyester because they do not take up the color etc. I used them because I wanted a faded, light look. I also was willing to risk losing a dress,as they were already unsellable in their present condition. I was experiencing. Furthermore I live by my motto,that nothing is ruined, mistakes are non existent in art, it is an opportunity for the art to move in a new direction.

Do I need to use salt, in dyeing?

Salt (sodium chloride, specifically) is important in using many types of dyes. Exactly how it should (or should not) be used depends on the specific type of dye in question. When using salt, always follow the recommendations of the dye manufacturer, unless you know better.

Contrary to some old wives' tales, salt is not a dye fixative and does nothing to make dye more permanent; however, it aids in the dyeing process by helping to drive the dye onto the fiber, out of solution, so that it is in the right place for any bonding to the fiber to occur. (http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml)I used salt in this project.




My daughter Liz, and apprentice in waiting, puts Baggies over parts we don't want dyed black.



Loving the color that comes out in the dipping method on the netting of the dress. I then dipped everything in black to get the worn aged effect I wanted for a spooky dress.



Two wedding dresses tied up and ready to go






MAKING COSTUMES FROM stained WEDDING DRESSES

I have a large inventory of Wedding dress still left over from the days of my retail boutique, which I have begun to sell , albeit slowly on line at http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/funkyfindzonline. however, I am unable to sell some due to staining, it is usually wine or coffee on the vintage bridal. This always brings a smile to me, as I conjure up visions of the happy bride, a bit tippsie toward the end of the evening, with not much care, and in the joy of the event dripping on her dress and not even realizing it her hot cup of coffee she drinks with her wedding cap, or that red wine she cherishes with her bridal dinner. This might be charming, but it makes it very difficult to sell these once worn dresses on line. A women does not want these memories to haunt her on her wedding day.

I love Halloween and making art for this holiday makes it my favorite time of the year. We decorate our home with stuffed dolls and spook it up good,complete with haunting ghoulish music and fog machine.

I love the haunted corpse bride and thought why not take these dresses and hand dye them for Halloween? I have a costume store http://www.etsy.com/shop/Cathyscostumefindz where I sell vintage handmade costumes and I figured I could sell these here. So I went to my local grocery store and picked up a few bottles of Rit dye, buckets and gloves. I started off with purple and black.


I had done tie dying before, and new that I needed a variety of rubber bands, I am familiar with the accordion method and others. See this method here http://www.ritdye.com/Tie-Dyeing.106.149.lasso

tie dying requires allot of rubber bands, my cat ENKI, keeps guard


THE DIPPING METHOD


My daughter Miranda quick grabs a cotton shirt and uses the left over dye to make a great shirt, this white shirt of hers was too stained to wear any more, now she has a new shirt that she can proudly say she made.



Dress with rubber bands in it. When I took them out I was disappointed a bit, much of the tie soaked threw, I believe this is because of the nature of the fabric. Rit recommends using cotton, which is much more absorbent.I will rethink this next time. It was allot of work and the results I don't think were worth it.

I hung the dresses outside to dry.
r



A early 1970s wedding dress that had alot of coffee stains on it, it is on a dress form waiting for paint and glitter. I don't want to embellish this dress to much, it stands well on its own. This might be a witches wedding dress. I love how the color turned out, it has an aged worn feel which I was going for.



1980s wedding,size small, about a 5, dress dyed with purple and black is now in my studio and ready to be painted and embellished. I see a vampire dress in this one. I plan to add red and black and create a boudiour ,lady of the night . This is my raw canvas. Acrylic paints can be easyly applied to fabric, and they dont wash out. Just think of it, when you get these paints on your clothes, nothing gets them out.


Getting my supplies ready in the studio, acrylic paints, sponges, glitter, hot coffee and classical music to create by.


Miranda painting two colors of glitter on lace trim on bottom of dress, tedious work, yet she has the patience. What a help she is! I use fine grain glitters, I love the Martha Stewart line, they are my favorites


I am nearly finished with the fun stage and will post the pictures shortly. As these are intended as costumes, I have used fabric glue to secure the lace, feathers and other embellishments on the dress. As we all know to well, many if not most Halloween costumes have glued features. I do this to keep the cost down, if I hand sewed everything the dress would just be too time consuming, as it is, I already have quite a few hours into each of them. The dresses will be dry clean only. It is possible that the dyes could fade with time. All in all I love doing this and can not wait to do another.