DIY - Canvas Tote Bags

A few weeks ago I made these little canvas tote bags for my mom and sister as a fun project one night when I was bored.

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, my mom is in a cake decorating class and has become very into baking...so hers was a cake theme and I figured she could use it to carry supplies to her baking classes.  My sisters was a Fleur de Lis (something you will probably see a lot on my blog...since I am obsessed with it).  I bought both images as digital downloads off of Etsy.com ---Side note -Etsy is hands down one of the best sites ever created I swear--- okay, back to the bags, I printed them on to iron-on transfers that I bought at WalMart ($9.98 for 6 sheets), and ironed them on to canvas tote bags, which I also bought at WalMart (I think I got a package of three for under $6.00). After I had the images on the bags I used some Jewel-It glue by Alene's to glue rhinestones onto the design. You can also find all of these supplies at Michaels, Joann's and other craft stores, as well as online.

Here are a few tips:

• Make sure you buy transfers specifically for either dark or light fabric, it makes a difference.
• Make sure you print anything with writing as a mirror-image, the option will be in your printer preferences, so that when you iron it on the letters don't turn out backwards.
• Cut away as much unprinted are away from the transfer as possible so that only your design is left.
• The canvas bags I bought were pre-washed and ready to use, but a lot of things you do with fabric will require washing and drying before hand to eliminate any chances of shrinking and distortion of your image later on.
• Don't use steam with the iron, press down and hold the iron firmly in the same place for at least 30 seconds...it only says 20 on the package I had but it definitely needed more time when I did it.

Here are my finished products:

The front of my mom's bag (there are tiny pink rhinestones on some of the dots on the cake)

The back (I found this quote online and just typed it up in Word and then printed it...since it had words on it I had to remember to print it as a mirror image)

My sisters bag (there are black rhinestones on the five circles, they're just hard to see (I need to start using my SLR and not my iPhone for pictures, it's just such a pain when I'm in a hurry though)

This was such an easy, fast and inexpensive gift to make! I think I'm going to make these as part of the gift basket I am going to give my bridesmaids too!

Happy Crafting :)