Decorated Luggage Travel Not Boring

I have been painting luggage for a few years now and of course I must say that I love my luggage to be as funky as I am. A couple of years ago, I was at the airport baggage claim standing by a woman waiting to get our luggage. As the bags began to arrive, she looked at the luggage coming out and as my piece appeared, she said, "I bet I know which piece is yours". Just thinking about this story makes me smile. Two years ago I got a lighter piece of luggage right before a trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas. I quickly painted it with just black and white checks and the finished product just never seemed right to me. Recently, I bought a Loralie Ladies panel that had larger designs on the fabric. I got a idea that I could use the designs on the luggage and here is what I created.

 All of this is fabric. I applied the fabric with Liquitex Mat Medium just like I do my furniture. I was trying to figure out how to protect the surface design from the severe wear and tear at the airport. I decided that I would try covering the front of the suitcase with several coat of Varathane clear coat glossy (which I had on hand) after thinking about what my friend, Pamela Allen said about covering placemats with Varathane which she still used. On my furniture that glossy Varathane doesn't look quite so shiny as it did on my suitcase. I just flew with this altered piece of luggage and it went through the whole airport/flying/luggage arrival process with flying colors.

I have a friend and we plan a yearly trip to LA on Mother's Day weekend. I fondly call this trip our Thelma and Louise Road Trip. Now I have never seen the movie Thelma and Louise and after referring to our trip by this name, my Mr. Partner In Crime told me that did I know that Thelma and Louise robbed a bank, killed Brad Pit and drove off  cliff? So I now refer to our trip as our Thelma and Louise Road Trip sans robbing a bank, sans Brad Pit and sans driving off a cliff. The only part I am sad about is the sans Brad Pit part. While we are in LA we go to the Fashion District and then we go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market. On our last trip she had this great little rolling tote that she used at the flea market. It was black with white polka dots and was just fabulous. I asked her if she would pick me up one the next time she went back to the store and I would reimburse her for the cost. When I saw her a few weeks ago, she presented me with the old black and white polka dot one from our last trip and the one below. She told me she thought I might like the one below and that I would enjoy making it my own.

 Well, I had just finished up the above piece of luggage and still had several of the Loralie Ladies. I decided to do the same technique on this piece.

 I painted the white polka dots on the black fabric and the black polka dots on the grey fabric with fabric paint

 I then painted on several coats of Varathane clear coat semi-gloss.  I forgot to say that I use the clean up with soap and water Varathane. I did not think the Varathane changed the hand of the fabric very much. It is still pretty soft and the semi-gloss is not so shiny. I am very happy with how these pieces turned out and I am excited to use my cute rolling tote  at the Rose Bowl Flea Market our next Thelma and Louise Road Trip.