More Suitcases

This past weekend I made a couple of suitcase for some pal swaps. If you remember back in May of 2011 I made my first one, you can find it here with the link to Leslie's blog were with her permission I did a swap with them. If I lift or copy an others work I always try to give credit. In the crafting world some of our works/designs might be similar to others but that does not mean we did not have the same idea just a different vision of it.

This time when making the suit cases I took step by step pictures to show you how I make mine. I do mine a little different then Leslie's but the design as far as I know is hers.
Use 2 pieces of coordinating 12x12 CS
Cut 2 - 6x7 pieces, these will be the top and bottom of your suitcase.
Cut 4 - 2x7 pieces, long sides of suitcase
Cut 4 2x6 pieces, short sides of suit case
Scor all pieces at 1/2", cut out the little squares at the corners, as you can see here I cut on an angle so that when gluing down the pieces the corn edges stay square.

Here you can see the main pieces of the suitcase. Next you need to adhere the edges down onto the white part of the cs. I use Scor-Tape for this as it has an incredible strong bond. You can get Scor-Tape in all widths, I used 1/2" width tape.

As you can see it is the perfect width to fit the folds and hold them in place. I used my bone scorer to make sure the edges were in place and they were nice crisp lines. Do not press to hard or you will ruin the cs.
I forgot to take a picture of the next step. Take 2 short sides and 2 long sides and adhere them together end to end. Then adhere one edge down so that you only have one flap to use to adhere to the top/bottom of the suitcase.

Here you can see one side of the suitcase put all together. It looks nice and neat. You have several options of what you wish to do to the inside. On my first suitcase I lined it with fabric after I decorated the right side. This helped to hid any of the holes I made for brads. You can use fabric or cs stock but I recommend you do that after decorating the other side.

Here is what it looks like before I start to decorate it. Now make the other side of the suitcase the same way. It gets easier with time and I learned different techniques with different tools to get really good at them. Don't be surprise if the first one you make does not line up right or that both sides of the suit case are slightly different. It is a handmade item and it does not need to be perfect. :D

I always lay out my embellishments first before attaching them to see if I like the placement or if it needs more or less of something. The Crystal flourish from Prima, the Flowers are from IamRoses.com and the name plate is Memory Makers, all other embellishments I got at my local Dollar store. They have some amazing finds, but I tend to shop at least 3 different ones. Now I tend to decorate one side only and I decorate it before putting both sides together.
For some reason I did not take a picture of the hinges I use. I tend to pick up my hinges from Home Depot as well as the little clasp that I put on top to hold it together. I know Tim Holtz makes some nice ones but for now the ones I use are from the hardware store. That is due to the fact it is hard to find Tim Holtz products here

This is the case all together and done with the embellishments. I added stickles around the top to hide where the cs joins, I used Fruitpunch. On the flowers I also added stickles in Orange to add a bit more shimmer. You can just make out the handle decoration.

On the handle using a binder ring I attached a bow in yellow and glued a butterfly to the front. Also tied some orange lace to the ring. Around the handle I put a Charm drop to add a bit more interest.
Now on the charms or jewelry I use. I went through my jewelry box and took apart all my necklaces and earrings I no longer wear, so I have a large asst. of sparkly, charms and dangle rhinestone pendants to use on my creations.
This was made for a pal swap to coordinate with the journal I made for her in January. It was a secret pal swap so until now I did not post a picture of that Journal. You will be able to find it at the end of this post.

Thanks for following along and thank you for your wonderful comments I do read them all. God Bless and check out the next post of a suitcase with matching tags, not sure if you would call it an album.