{Vintage Suitcase Makeover}

When people know that you are crafty, they sometimes present you with opportunities to work on items you wouldn't have even thought of working on.  It's then that your creativity gets tested.  During the summer, a lovely lady who works at the local thrift store told me she had a metal suitcase that belonged to her mother that she would love for me to makeover.  She brought me the suitcase, told me colors she liked, and then handed it over to me.

 This is the piece before.  Many of you probably would have loved this suitcase just the way it was, and for precisely that reason, I was REALLY worried about messing it up.

I mean, it had so much character already, and it was a family heirloom.  But after asking the lady for the ok to spray paint the piece, I lightly sanded it and primed it with Rustoleum primer.

After priming, I sprayed it gray, and then I used my Silhouette to create stencils from contact paper.  I used spray paint to paint the designs, and it was very tricky to do.  Because the base coat was slippery, I had some seepage, but I carefully masked those places off and touched up the paint.  (I think I put a coat of clear spray paint over the design, but it's been a while since I did this, so I can't exactly remember.)  I created some fabric flowers and hot glued them to magnets.  This way I could stick them around the design, and they could easily be removed if the lady didn't like them.  Then it was all over except for crossing my fingers and toes that she liked what I came up with.

I met her at her house, nervously knocked, and handed her the piece when she opened the door.

To my relief, she loved it!

She even liked the fabric flower magnets.  :)