We have friends that are builders in our area, and months ago now, they dropped off a box of granite samples for me to play with.
There are about 36 granite bricks total in different sizes, so as much as I wanted to tile a table top or something, there weren’t enough and I wasn’t confident I could cut those that I had to size.
I hemmed and hawed trying to come up with ideas for these babies – I mean, who wants to waste these?!
Stocking hangers? Maybe.
Photo stands? Possibly.
For right now though, what I need most is a paperweight. My desk is covered in papers and receipts and every time I get up quickly, something falls off.
I could have just used a brick as a paperweight, but then that would be a pretty boring blog post wouldn’t it? I decided to turn these little babies into vintage suitcases.
If you don’t have a builder as a friend and can’t get your hands on some of these granite samples, don’t worry – you could just as easily make these suitcases with pieces of scrap wood. Just give it a coat or two of paint and then add small circles to the corners.
You’ll want to cut a slit in your paper circles to the centre point. These will wrap around each corner and then overlap onto themselves. I used hot glue to adhere them, but mod podge or tombow glue would have worked as well.
You’ll need 8 circles per brick to make your vintage suitcase bookends – go traditional brown or black, or add colour to have them stand out a bit.
I had these buckles in my card making stash and I thought they looked a lot like the ones used on luggage, so I threaded them through some yardstick and then glued the entire strip around the suitcase – crappy unfinished ends at the bottom.
I did a bit of surfing online for “travel stickers” and came across a ton of different ones. Modern, traditional, funny, classic, postage stamp and for just about every place you can possibly imagine – so I chose a few I liked and then re-sized them in MS Word so they were at maximum 3cm in height/width. I printed them on regular printer paper and then adhered them with some glossy mod podge.
I coated both of the bookends/ paperweights with mod podge and let dry.
If you’re using wood, you might want to make two vintage suitcases if you plan to use them as bookends. You’ll need the weight of two to keep your books upright. With these granite bricks, I can put a suitcase on either end of my books and they’ll stay up.
Chloe and I worked together and she made a set for herself as well – we printed off a sticker for Phuket (Thailand), but she was worried she’d get in trouble for using swear words if she put it on her case. lol
Cute right?
An easy craft that you can have fun making – alone or with the kids – that will serve a function as well.
Thank you Sue & Doug!
Have a great one!
Linked to:
- Between Naps on the Porch
- Skip to My Lou