packing for a trip to Transylvania...

I've been really intrigued by miniature luggage lately, as Alpha Stamps has several new laser cut luggage options. After making up several of the pieces (okay... one of each), I realized I had a lovely matching set of luggage and had to make a room box to showcase it...

I'm a Goth at heart so my luggage and room box is certainly creepy enough to house a miniature girly vampire packing up her gear for a trip to Transylvania (hence, the title of this post). Boy do I love black, white and red together! It's so striking and works well with skulls and taxidermy too.

I had to paint all of my hardware black to match the paper I used but it was well worth the effort. Speaking of painting... I painted all of my furniture, too, and it was really easy to do.

 First I carefully stripped off all of the upholstery so I could reuse it.

Next I removed the glue residue with Goof Off.

Then I used the same technique I used on the furniture in Rose Ella's reading room to complete the task. I love how it turned out and I wish I had time to make over some of my life size furniture, lol.

 The base of my room box is two Corner Room Boxes that I glued together...

 I filled the gap in with a bit of Apoxie Sculpt Clay.

Once you cover the whole thing with paper, you can't even tell it's been cobbled together. Note: The paper I used is several years old and no longer available :(

 When I build a miniature scene in a room box, I like to add the pieces I plan to use slowly and move them around until I find just the right balance...

 I usually glue everything down, but, this time I decided to use Museum Wax to fix the pieces in place so I could redecorate later if I want to :)

 The Steamer Trunk looked really naked on top so I added a playful kitty...

 and some books and letters...

 Pretty soon the whole thing was nicely full and cozy.

By the way, I created a collage sheet with drawers for the new Steamer Trunk but I ended up using them inside out because they clashed with my black and white damask exterior paper, lol.

I hope you enjoyed my post today and are inspired to make your own room box or a set of little luggage or both! Here's a link to my supply list. Now go create something awesome!

a haunted sunken ship shadowbox in a miniature suitcase...

It looks like a miniature suitcase with buckles and labels and all of the other things you'd expect a suitcase to have... But, when you open it up there the similarities end...

Inside awaits a tiny haunted world from a past era when sailing via ocean liner was all the rage. Unfortunately, for our occupants this ship is resting somewhere on the bottom of the ocean.

There is lots of luggage in this stateroom including a nifty steamer trunk stuffed full of travel things (such as the tiny passports and tags).

The occupant of this stateroom is a bit indisposed at the moment. It doesn't look like he will be finishing his breakfast anytime soon.

I hope you've enjoyed my little sea journey. I created it with stuff I got at Alpha Stamps, including a new collage sheet with the luggage boxes I designed exclusively for Leslie (the Queen of Alpha Stamps). To help you put the boxes together, I created my very first Snapguide Tutorial. It's super easy to follow and I hope you will make some sweet little luggage boxes for your own artsy project.