Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures: Another Painted Suitcase With Some Subway Art

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Another Painted Suitcase With Some Subway Art

Months ago I painted an ugly blue suitcase and stenciled a harlequin diamond pattern on top. It is still one of my favorite makeovers.

The ugly blue suitcase had a big brother. I thought it was time to reunite them because I like the look of stacked vintage suitcases.

So I dug out Big Blue and dusted him off.

I gave him a coat of spray paint with Krylon’s Brown Boots.

He already looks better to me.

But he needed more. My husband’s family is lucky enough to have a website devoted to his family record. You can go here if you want to see it. I used it to make some subway art with my new Cricut. It took me a long time to figure it all out and I was glad several of my blogging friend recommended the software program Make the Cut. It helped so much with my layout. You can only program 14 characters at a time with a cartridge. I did have to buy a USB cord to connect it to my computer.

I used contact paper and after much thought I decided trying to stick it evenly on the suitcase would be a bigger nightmare than the tedious job of peeling off all those little letters from the sticky cutting mat. So I just taped it down.

And in the late night hours I painted it and was sick to my stomach when I realized I forgot Abraham’s dates. And then I puked. Not really, but I wanted to. I had spent hours on this and I just couldn’t get myself to redo it. So I added tiny little dates under his name so that it would be there, but not take away from the look of it.

I glazed it because I wanted the suitcase to look old. I know it doesn’t have the stark crisp letters of subway art, but it works for me.

Can you believe the first Deupree on here lived for so long. 96 years. That was a long time back then. Heck, it is a long time now. Thomas didn’t live very long. Abraham’s dates were the tiny 1811-1876 if you couldn’t read it from the above photo. And the other William had a long life as well. Thankfully, my father in law, husband and son only have birth dates. Aren’t you thankful that my son’s name is David and not Roy #4? I know I am. Both my husband and father in law go by Roy or Dan. It is very confusing. People often think I have 2 husbands because I call him Dan and he goes by Roy at work.