Showing posts with label hard case. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hard case. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Craft Show displays made from Vintage Suitcases

Probably the place that you'll have the most vintage hard-shell suitcase sightings would be at a handmade crafts show.  Especially the indie ones! They are so handy for craft shows because they double as storage. You can store your crafts inside, carry them into the show, open up the case and boom.... display is done. (ok, so there is a little more work than that in setting up a craft show booth but still... you get what I mean)
The other day I was surfing around the web looking at suitcases when I came across this
Adorable right? I've bee using my vintage cases for my craft show displays for awhile, but I've been using just the plain case... as is.  Mine didn't have anything fancy, I just open it up, arrange my softies inside and sling my banner over the top, see... here's me

(above picture taken by Eric Bojanowski for the Sun-Sentinel article about Odd Duck)
But, I've got one case that I never used because it is HUGE and any softies that I prop up indie just don't fill the vertical space. So, I figured I'd get crafty.  I dug out the saw and managed to cut a piece of peg board the right size to fit inside.
I didn't permanently attach it because the interior if this case is pristine and I just couldn't bring myself to make permanent changes.  Surprisingly I was lucky enough to get the size of the board just right and it just sticks in there by itself held on by the interior trim! Honestly I don't know what I am going to use this for because I don't really sell anything that would be displayed hung from a peg board, but oh well... I am still proud of my handiwork.  Next I'll paint the peg board to match the suitcase and sometime between then and my next show... maybe I'll find a use for it.
Below is a picture of my kids trying it out to make sure it holds strong enough.  They were running around just hanging up anything they could find.  Here we have a pac man plush, a sugar skull plush, two aprons and a wii remote.
I found a seller on Etsy who makes and sells these sorts of vintage luggage display cases already made for you.  I also found several tutorials on how to make Vintage Luggage into craft show displays.

http://www.lynnminneydesigns.com/2011/07/12/tutorial-tuesday-vintage-suitcase-to-craft-show-display/
http://greenupgrader.com/15758/vintage-suitcase-craft-project/ 
http://leafytreetopspot.blogspot.com/2011/01/friday-finds-craft-show-display-ideas.html

If you are looking for a vintage suitcase to upcycle,  eBay is an easy way to find one without having to take repeated trips to the thrift store with your fingers crossed.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The first post

The first post is always the hardest. I am so excited about creating this blog and have so many things that I want to share but getting things organized and set up is the hard part. The next challenge will be sticking with it!
I'm not setting a lofty post-everyday sort of goal, nothing crazy like that, just want a place to gush about my new obsession.... Vintage hard-shell suitcases.
More specifically, American Touristers, but more than likely my fascination will expand to reach all the brands.
I guess I'll start at the beginning.
It was about 10 years ago when I was at my grandma's house being nosey and opening all the closets in the upstairs part of the house that no one used anymore.  There were three bedrooms up there but unlike modern homes, you couldn't stand completely upright in all the spaces and it has these really strange, short closets that follow the roof-line. I always loved to look through the stuff up there because my grandma was so stylish and had the neatest things.  Those rooms were barely ever used, so they tended to be the place where the stuff that no one used any more, but no one wanted to throw away ended up.
I discovered a hot pink Samsonite hard-case suitcase and fell in love.  I pulled it out and opened it to find another, smaller one inside.  How neat!  I was a full-grown adult at this time, mind you, but I'd never noticed how cool these things are before that day.  I grew up a military brat, so we traveled.  We always had suitcases.  Just never any suitcase that actually had enough character for me to take notice.  After having this epiphany, I realized that my own parents had been using a set of avocado green hard shell Samsonites just like this set forever!  All through my childhood and I never noticed!  I guess the color is why I never cared before.
Grandma's suitcases were HOT PINK.  That is awesome!  At some point in the last 10-years modern suitcases have begun to be more colorful again, but at around the turn of the century, it seemed that every suitcase you saw was solid black or a gray/black combo.  I just had to have this HOT PINK luggage!
I ran downstairs and asked if I could have it.  Because I only saw Grandma, maybe once a year or once every other year and I am number 12 of her 14 grandkids, she usually said yes when I asked her for things.  This time it took some begging.  *remember... full-grown adult at the time* She finally gave in and let me have the whole set.
Did I mention that the insides had polka dots? oh yes, polka dots.
I no longer have this set... another story... another time.  But I found some like them on eBay for a visual.
Photos credit: eBay seller 440slapstick