This easy little tote bag would be great for a DIY Christmas gift. I made it for my Grandma’s birthday based on the instruction at this tutorial. You can buy these plain canvas totes from the craft store. But if you’re feeling ambitious, there are about one zillion tote bag tutorials online. (See, for example, here and here.)
First, spray the back of a doily with spray adhesive and position about 1/4 of the doily on the tote.
If you think to yourself, “well some extra glue won’t hurt,” you’re wrong. It will hurt. Do not indulge the instinct to spray glue all over the place. An even layer is more than sufficient. If you use too much glue you’ll get a sticky mess like this when you peel off the doily.
(This was my first attempt. I started to use tweezers to pull up the doily but even that proved fruitless. Luckily these canvas tote bags came in sets of threes.)
Second, paint over the doily with fabric paint and let dry.
Next, add your monogram. The easiest way is to trace with pencil and then paint it in by hand. That freaks me out. So I used the freezer paper stencil method, which I will post about tomorrow. Here’s the finished product:
Any DIY Christmas gifts up your sleeve?
