The Baggage Carousel

 
Everybody has the same basic black rolling bag I have and it's hard to tell one from another when they're riding the baggage carousel. I did the 'tie a piece of fabric around the handle' thing and that helped, but I decided there had to be a better way.

Enter the stencil. And here is the transformation from basic to identifiable. (Pictures taken in the driveway because luggage in the house upsets the dog.)

The front is a Melanie Royals stencil called Endless Vine. I have three of them (I've used it a lot). One was cut up for corners and smaller spaces and that's the one I used on the front of the bag. See Melanie's wonderful website here.

Here are the cut-up pieces of a very well-used stencil:

The back stencil is from Peggy Ridgeway's Etsy shop, Artistic Stencils. Her shop is here. I saw this stencil on a blog someplace and looked it up - and she is in Seattle! Small world.

I didn't use fabric paint, just used stuff I had lying around. Golden acrylics, Proceed metallic pearl, and to finish it off I sprayed three coats of Deft Clear Wood Finish as a sealer. We'll see how it holds up. It gets its first test next week when I go to Reno for the International Decorative Artists League conference.