I never seem to have enough craft storage. Especially, boxes in which to hide the little things. Instead of buying something I decided to reuse what I already had at home with this shoebox craft.
One of the best things about this shoebox craft is that I could sit and do all the doodling whilst catching up with the winter Olympics.
This craft cost me virtually nothing, as I had everything already. It was a very quick and simple upcycle and featured under B for boxes in the list of A to Z of upcycling ideas.
Create Vintage Suitcases With Shoebox Craft
The boxes look really cute on my shelves and I think I will be making some more. I might even add some labels to the boxes disguised as luggage tags.
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What you need
- Cardboard shoeboxes – I used boxes in various sizes.
- White Chalk paint
- Black sharpie
- Pencil
How to make Shoeboxes look like vintage Suitcases
First, paint the shoe boxes white with chalk paint. You can use other white paint, but I personally prefer the matt finish you get with chalk paint. I just used a wall paintbrush for this.
If the shoeboxes are brightly coloured, more than one coat of paint may be needed.
2. Next, once the paint has dried on the shoeboxes then you can draw on the suitcase furniture. Before doodling onto the shoe boxes, sketch out some designs of handles, hinges and locks, and corners. This will give you a reference guide to refer to when doodling.
You can copy the doodles I used below.
3. Next, draw the vintage suitcase doodles onto the white shoe boxes first in pencil. Make sure you add a handle, locks, corners and trims to each shoe box.
Then when you are happy with the design go over the pencil marks with a black sharpie.
4. With this shoebox craft, I doodled on the front, back, sides and top.
Top tip: Don’t worry if you make a mistake with the sharpie. You can always paint over it with more white chalk paint and start again.
Other shoebox craft ideas
I’m really pleased with how these shoeboxes turned out and can’t wait to make some more.
With five of us in the family that do a lot of sport, we get through a lot of shoes. I need to find some more shoebox crafts! I think I will cover some of them in maps as I did with my empty cookie tins. Instead of drawing on the handles, I could actually make real ones out of leather scraps.
The simple monochrome look of these suitcases inspired me with some fun Christmas decorations. I made some simple white felted baubles with black stitching, and a black and white Scandi felt forest.
The vintage suitcase shoe boxes also blend in well with the wallpaper in my dining room. It’s a bit like camouflage.
If you are looking for more craft storage ideas you might want to check out these DIY storage boxes with denim and stylish copper and denim craft caddy. Also, my festive painted wicker hamper.
For other uses of cardboard boxes, check out these giant cardboard Christmas decorations.
Or even my popular vintage map suitcase.
For other DIY craft storage ideas check out favcrafts.com
Stephanie Keime
Soooo cute. Did you doodle your dining room wallpaper too? I’d love to see more of that.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, no the wallpaper I bought like that. I think its from a brand called Graham and Brown.
Linda at Mixed Kreations
What a fun way to make some super cute storage boxes!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, they were fun to make.
Olga
Love the idea!!
Can’t sleep anymore-thinking about all those boxes I put in recycle bin over the years!! :))
Claire Armstrong
Thank you! You’ll just have to go out and buy new shoes.
Rosie (@greenrosielife)
Ha ha I love these! I actually have 3 proper old suitcases and I was thinking only recently how sad it is that no-one uses them now and it is all wheelie cases. Somehow they were so much more classy IMHO. #GoingGreen
Claire Armstrong
Thank you. I love how old suitcases look but I much prefer to drag one on wheels then carry a heavy case.
Teresa
I would never have come up with this idea and they are so cute! Thank you for sharing on Party in Your PJ’s. Pinned!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Teresa.
Sam - Raggedy Bits
What a neat repurpose of plain old boring shoe boxes!!! Perfect to store crafty goodies!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Sam. yes mine are now full of my craft rubbish.
Mary
Claire you must have read my mind. I have a ton of show boxes I need to make over and this is the perfect way!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Mary. They are fun to make, you can even eleborate them more by drawing luggage labels.
Sandra L Garth
My granddaughter needs lots of these to corral all of her hair and makeup supplies. Thank you for sharing with us this week at Celebrate Your Story and we hope you will join us again next week.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, I think your granddaughter will have fun making them.
Tubbs
These look lovely. Like the sort of thing that Paddington would buy from Mr Gruber’s shop 🙂
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, yes very Paddington like.
Susan
These are so, so cute! I use shoe boxes to store my craft supplies but they look like, uh, shoe boxes. Yours look like something you’d buy in an etsy shop. And I love the part where if you goof you can just paint it over and fix it. I’m inspired to try!
Claire Armstrong
Ahh, thank you, Susan. I often goof when crafting so often need a quick fix.
IOANNA
This is perfect,I love it!!
Claire Armstrong
Ahh, thank you ?
Kara
Wow, these are seriously effective and really quite simple.
Thanks for sharing x
#homeetc
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Kara.
Julie
These are so cool, they really remind me of Paddington bear , back in the day when it was the TV program (I loved Paddington) It had drawn backgrounds didn’t it? No shoe box is safe now, this seems much easier than covering them with fabric or paper and much cooler.
Claire Armstrong
Yes it’s like Paddington cartoon of the 70’s and 80’s. Thank you. I would say it was easier than covering them with fabric or paper and definitely more fun too.
Kathryn Griffin
Oh, my goodness! These are so cute! I would have never thought to transform shoe boxes this way! Thanks for sharing! Feel free to share this at my Make it Pretty Monday party which goes live tomorrow at 8:00am. http://www.thededicatedhouse.com Hope to see you at the shindig! Have a great week ahead! Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
Claire Armstrong
Ahh thank you so much and thanks for the invite.
Cherryl Ehlenburg
This is such a cute and unique idea! I guess I will have to start saving shoe boxes!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you. Personally I think it’s a good idea to treat yourself to a new pair of boots.
creativejewishmom/sara
Brilliant Claire, and oh so stylish……i can certainly use a whole luggage room full of these! And truthfully they would look great in any color, especially pastels…..so one can really use any latex house paint that happens to be on hand, hmmm, hope to have some and give it a try. Thanks for sharing on craft schooling Sunday!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Sara. I’m sure any latex or chalk paint would work well.
Katrin
How do you come up with these fantastic, unique and creative ideas Claire! Love these boxes!
Claire Armstrong
Ahh, thank you Katrin. I just love mKing stuff.
Yolanda
Super cute and a brilliant idea!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you so much, Yolanda.
Hollie
That’s quite cute! I’m seriously thinking about doing this for my kids small toys!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, I think these would look great in a kids room.
Michelle Leslie
Ah Claire, you’ve done it again. Such a brilliant idea. It looks like storage that jumped straight out of a comic book and decided to come live forever in the real world. I love how they turned out. An emoty cardboard box will never look the same again.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Michelle. If you ever watched Paddington Bear the cartoon from the 1970’s it looks a bit like the title sequence which was hand drawn.
Janine
Claire,
What a cute idea! Love how you upcycled a shoe box into something that works so nice as decor! You’re so clever.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Janine. I do like how they turned out.
Cecilia
You are so resourceful and these are so cute! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm–pinned!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Cecilia. I like to repurpose whenever possible.
Mary-The Boondocks Blog
Claire this is so cute, I’m gonna see if I can get my girls on board and make it for their bookshelves.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Mary. I know I always say this but these are actually fun to make. It would be fun to add some travel labels to them too.
Julia - Vintage with Laces
That’s so cute and adorable, Claire!
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Julia.
Becky at PinksCharmimg
These are amazing! They remind me of Paddington (the 80s TV show not the film) for some reason I can’t put my finger on. Love them x #HomeEtc
Claire Armstrong
Now that you mention it I see the Paddington thing too. I think it was the title sequence that was a hand-drawn black and white background. Maybe that’s where I got the idea from lodged in the back of my brain from childhood. Thank you!
Debrashoppeno5
The suitcases are so adorable. I wish I had shelf space to try this project.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you ?
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled
Excellent, as always Claire! I save shoe boxes for the kids random, last-minute school projects but this makes me want to use them myself, LOL. Visiting from Whisk It Wednesday.
Claire Armstrong
Thank you, Victoria. They were really fun to make, I loved doodling.