A while back Denise from Denise … on a whim left a comment for me, so I wandered off to check out her blog and came across this …

And I fell madly in love.  Isn’t it fab?

You know I love a good painted suitcase, and the message just spoke to me.

So I left a comment for Denise in return and long story short, she offered to send me the artwork for her design.  How absolutely generous and kind of her, right?

That meant I needed to paint up a suitcase so I could use it!  I knew this would be another great test for Fusion paint.  Plus, one of Fusion’s promo photos for the Fusion paint included a suitcase that I just loved and I knew I could re-create the look of it myself with their paint.  I decided to combine these two features; Denise’s design with Fusion’s color scheme.

By the way, before I continue about my project, when my sister was visiting I showed her this picture and she remembered that my parents had a suitcase just like this and I used it to store my Barbie doll paraphernalia.  As soon as she said it, I remembered it and realized that is probably why I find it so appealing.  All of those happy hours spent dressing my Barbie in fabulous clothes!

OK, back to my project.  I started out with one of the suitcases that my friend Meggan grabbed for me at Goodwill, one of the thrift store unicorns!

First I painted the top ¾ of the case in Fusion’s Bedford.  I used two coats, but if I had painted more carefully I probably could have gotten away with just one.  I let that dry overnight and then taped off a straight line on both sides and painted the lower part of the case, as well as the sides and the handle, using Seaside (again, two coats).  When I pulled the tape off, the Bedford was still in pristine condition underneath.  I have had trouble using tape with both chalk and milk paint.  With milk paint you can pretty much count on a good deal of paint coming off with your tape.  It is less of a problem with chalk paint, but you do still get some paint coming off.  So if you are going to do a project that requires taping (a stripe for instance, or maybe a union jack design) Fusion is a great choice for you.

Honestly, the suitcase was completely darling already at this point.  I could have left it alone and been quite happy with it.  It was amazing how ‘genuine’ it looked.

But I really wanted to use Denise’s artwork.  I’m too cheap to pay to have a stencil cut, so I decided to try my old technique.  I printed the design on regular paper, then used tracing paper to trace it onto the suitcase.

Then I filled in the design with black acrylic craft paint using a small brush.  This method takes a bit longer than using a stencil, but I accomplished it in less time than one episode of Fixer Upper, which was playing in the background while I painted.

So, what do you think?  Cute as pie?

I added a chalkboard arrow tag and as you can see this suitcase still has its key.

Lula is dressed and ready to take off on an adventure.

And tucked into her pocket …

So how about it?  Are you the kind of adventurer who needs a painted suitcase of your own?   There are still spots available in my Painted Suitcase class at the end of the March (click here for details).  If you are interested, be sure to send me an email at oakdalecarriagehouse@gmail.com or just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.