The Texas Woman

Trash to Terrific!

Want a good time without callin' that number on the wall in the Ladies Room?

Then jump on over to Sanctuary Arts Make-over Day and visit the blogs signed up on her Mr. Linky. Get motivated by all the exciting projects linked there and be sure to leave lots of comments!

So here's my make-over for Jen R.'s Mr. Linky.

Ever since Emily Interesting showed me her decoupaged suitcase, I've wanted to do one. I decided right then and there to search garage sales until I came up with the perfect suitcase to decoupage with some of my M-I-L's old things. She has a ton of stuff, as you can see.

I got lucky at the only garage sale I had time to stop at Saturday. There sat two suitcases just like I wanted. In order for this project to work the suitcases had to be old, they had to have trim around the edges, and they had to be priced right.

Cost: five dollars for both. Don't you love it when a plan comes together? And I also love the make-do handle on the smaller suitcase. Apparently, it's seen a lot of traveling.

So I dug through all of M-I-L's stuff and, after figuring out what I wanted to use, I laid it all out in an interesting arrangement on the flat surfaces, making sure none of the old blue covering showed in the gaps between the items.

Next I decoupaged everything down. When dried, I covered the whole thing again with decoupage. This step is important because I wanted to make sure everything was coated, otherwise the next step wouldn't give me the effect I desired.

When the piece dried again, I rubbed it down with burnt umber craft paint until I had an aged effect. Then I painted around the edges of each item to simulate shadows. You might like thicker or darker shadows than I did.

For a finished product I added another layer of decoupage.

Here are both finished suitcases...


...ready to stack in the guest room for visitors to set their drink or book on.

Anybody want to come visit me? Hmmm, I could rent out my spare rooms for Warrenton.....