Henry's very lucky to have a lot of special people in his life- three sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends who are like family- but there isn't quite anyone like Erin. Erin and I have been friends forever. We went to the same junior high and high school, and although I knew her brother (he was in the sports medicine program and wrapped my ankle before every soccer game!) she and I never had the chance to really connect. After high school though, we finally got a chance to know one another and I fell in total friend love with the girl. Now she's been one of my closest friends for over a decade, a bridesmaid in our wedding, a dear friend of Hanks, and an auntie to Henry.
Erin is one of "those" women, the kind of woman that everyone always has questions for: where did you get that? How did you do that? And the most common- did you REALLY make that? The answer to the last question, when talking about Erin, is always, always yes. She's insanely talented at what she does, which is everything. She's a true Martha, a crafter extraordinaire, and although I've been bugging her for years to start a blog, all of her creations never see the light of the blog world. Instead, her friends and family get to quietly enjoy them as she often showers her loved ones with the most amazing presents. She's not just the most creative person I know, but one of the most giving too.
And today Erin is here to share a tutorial on what has to be the GREATEST child's gift I've ever seen. And lucky Henry, it's all his!
It's a magic case, filled with children's costumes, and Erin is here to give us the background on her wonderful creation.
For this project you'll need:
Vintage suitcase (use one that has flat, paintable surfaces)
Acrylic paint
Paint brushes
Paint markers
Chalk
Step 1: Form a plan for how you would like to paint the front of your suitcase
Step 2: Throw out half of step 1 and form a new simplified version for the sake of sleep. I printed the lettering out and using a lightbox, traced it onto the banner to make sure it would read nicely.
I used chalk to sketch out the design on the suitcase and printed the letters from the day before in scale with the new banner. After trying endlessly to redraw the hands I decided to scan my drawing, colorize them in photoshop and print them out.
Next, using paint pens and acrylic paint I painted the chalked image onto the suitcase. While the paint on the crystal ball was wet I sprinkled glitter on it.
Step 3: fill with costumes and fun hats! Anything that will get a child's imagination going. You do not have to spend money on this - think old dress shirt and ties, robes, dresses you don't wear...kids love it all!
Now if you will, please join me in BEGGING Erin to start a DIY/Craft blog. The world wide web could use some fresh ideas from Ms. Peters, wouldn't you agree?
Thank you EP for sharing. And to everyone else, happy DIY-ing and gifting! Please let us know if you decide to make a magic case of your own, and be sure to send photos so I can share them in a future post. And if you have any questions be sure to leave them in the comments, and I'll pass them along to Erin.
xoxo