I was shopping with a friend at our local flea market when I spotted this train case that was in fairly good condition and selling for only $6. The inside was a hot mess but the outside was in great shape! I thought it would be fun to decoupage the case to use as a carry-on piece of luggage when we head off to CHA in a few weeks!

I am not going to give you a step-by-step of how I covered the outside of this case because it would be really long and tedious, and it’s not likely any of you will have a case just like this one. Instead, I am going to offer you some general tips for doing fabric decoupage that you can apply to any project.

TIP #1: Decoupage your fabric before you cut it to use.

We have shared this all-important tip with you before. Applying the decoupage medium to the fabric first allows you to cut the fabric and not have it fray. Place a large piece of your fabric out on some wax or parchment paper and then coat it with your DecoArt Decoupage. Allow it to dry thoroughly and then cut the pieces you need. You can then use more decoupage medium to attach the fabric to the item.

TIP #2: Cut lots of notches around hardware.

This seemed scary to do for some reason but is quite necessary when you are working around as much hardware as I was. If you make notches so that the fabric can lay flat around the piece, then you can trim all of it off later for a perfect fit.

TIP #3: Allow your fabric to dry COMPLETELY before trimming.

Don’t be like me. Don’t get so excited about seeing how it will look that you start trying to trim your fabric before it is completely dry. It doesn’t work. It just doesn’t. So, don’t do it! Walk away from your project. Go to the grocery store, take a nap, read a few chapters — anything to keep you from ruining your piece because you lack crafting patience.

I covered the outside of my case with decoupaged fabric, but the inside was a bit different. Redoing the interior is actually super easy because you can use the existing pieces as your pattern. For the top and bottom inserts, I simply traced the piece onto cardboard and then covered my cardboard with fabric. To cover the inside walls of the case, I just cut fabric to size, with no cardboard needed. The fabric I chose was a nice fleece which gave it some extra padding and has the benefit of not fraying when cut.

For inside the lid, I wanted it to create a way to hold my iPad or Kindle, which I always take with me when traveling. To do this, I simply took two elastic headbands and made a criss-cross pattern. I tied loops in the ends of each elastic to tighten them enough so that the iPad would remain securely in place.

I love how the case turned  out. I must be honest, I was actually a bit intimidated by this project at first. I was afraid of messing it up. But, I learned a few things as I went along and I couldn’t be happier with the end result. I can’t wait to carry it through the airport!