Upcycled Vintage Suitcase

Just a girl with her hat & suitcase, ready to take on the world! As many of you may know (or not know), I’ve officially decided to leave New Jersey for the time being and travel abroad! I will be spending the summer in the UK doing Work Away. Currently my travel plans include a stay mainly in Wincanton, the south of London, but I'm also interested in traveling to London, Oxford (hopefully visiting Annie Sloan's Studio), traveling on the coast, and possibly taking the underground train to Paris. When I’m back I’d like to make plans to visit family and friends across the US, and after that I’m not quite sure! I've never been to the West Coast, so I'd really like to explore that. 

As for art and design, a lot of watercolor, sketching, and other projects & adventures are headed your way in the upcoming months! If any of you have travel, train, flight, place, or experience suggestions please let me know (comment below or reach out on my instagram). My goal is to blog a lot more while I travel, with a bit more of personal travel experience while incorporating my journal & sketches along the way. Follow along on my Instagram to keep updated the most consistently! 

I recently spruced up my vintage suitcase with Annie Sloan chalk paint! I wanted to replicate the style of paintings I’ve done on a few books (some of you will recognize the butterfly) and included my logo on the sides. For my color pallet, I used Graphite as the base, incorporated Svenska Blue to create an outline, and Original for the painting/logo. While I won't be taking this suitcase to my travels abroad, I still thought the post was  fitting for the announcement. This suitcase is most used accompanying me on the pop-up shows I do!  

 A “before” and “after” picture of my design to up-cycled vintage suitcase with Chalk Paint. I love to sketch things out before I go-to do them, because it helps me have sort of a game plan! My logo was applied with a handmade stencil I carved out of bristol board, and the butterflies were hand painted to sort of go along with the look of my 'butterfly journals'. 

A fun tip for those of you who up-cycle vintage pieces- this suitcase smelled a bit before I painted it, and since chalk paint "breathes" I had to shellac it beforehand to "seal it in". After that, I painted a layer of Graphite then added the imagery in Old White, and added the rims in Svenska Blue. After everything was finished, I clear waxed the whole thing.