Let's get creative! Dress up gift bags with DIY watercolour ribbon.

Let's get creative! Here's a sweet idea for making plain white gift bags a little more colourful by just changing out the ribbon handles. 

I recently had the pleasure of working with Gloria Vazquez-Abrams from Historia Wedding and Event Planning and the amazing team that she brought together for a styled shoot wedding. Gloria's pastel coloured theme was filled with so many whimsical details and as soon as I saw her mood boards I knew that I needed to find a way to work my DIY watercolour ribbons to the set up.

I removed the white ribbon handles on these white and gold foil edged gift bags and replaced them with the rainbow coloured ribbon.

Gloria filled the gift bags on this glorious sweet table with cotton candy. The colours in the cotton candy and gourmet chocolates are so much fun and I love the way that the ribbon handles on the gift bags add that little bit of extra colour pop to the overall set up.

The rainbow ribbon handle gift bags were also used in another area of the set up. Gloria incorporated the gift bags and these gift boxes along with balloon, paper flower, drapery and vinyl floor decal installations to create a centre stage area for the Cirque Entertainment.

Interested in doing this for a wedding or party?

Here's a quickie tutorial to show you what I did and how to figure out how much painted ribbon you will need.

You will find my painted ribbon DIY tutorial here.

The ribbons that came on the gift bags can be removed by simply cutting the ribbon and pulling them through the holes from the inside of the bag. But I suggest that you remove at least one ribbon handle by untying the knots and removing the handle in one piece.

So as you can see above, I used the original ribbon handle to work out not only how long the ribbon needed to be for the gift bag but to also calculate how much ribbon I would need to paint so that I could change the ribbon on all of the gift bags I planned to use.

To add the rainbow ribbon to the gift bag I tied a knot on one end of the ribbon, feed it through both holes of the bag and then tied a knot on the other end of the ribbon to finish. Repeat on the other side of the bag.

My tip to make wrinkled ribbon smooth: Use a straight iron on a low temperature to easily iron out wrinkles. 

Credits for Styled Shoot:

Planning and Styling by Historia Wedding and Event Planning 

Photography by Samantha Ong Photography 

Balloons by The Sweetest Thing Balloons 

Draping and Vinyl Floor Decals by Finer Events  

Paper Flower Décor by Floral Fantasy Studio 

Tableware Rentals by Sweet Bee Tea Party  

Linens, Chargers, Napkins and Chairs by Chair Decor 

Invitations, Menu, Place Cards, 3D Animal by A Good Day Inc. 

Packaging Supplies by Creative Bag

Chocolates by Stubbe Chocolate 

Favours by Marie Genevieve 

Cotton Candy by Bucket and Whisk 

Custom Lighted Designs by Marquee Marc  

Cirque Entertainment by Articus Productions  

Tuxedo by Andrew's Formals 

Dress by Papilio Boutique 

Accessories by The Loved One 

Hair and Makeup by Beyoutiful Brides  

Venue: Ontario Heritage Trust Enoch Turner Schoolhouse 

how to paint on leather & faux leather clothing & accessories

Have you ever wanted to learn how to add your own illustrations and hand lettering to leather clothing and accessories? 

I have been painting on leather and faux leather items for about a year now and I thought that today I would share some of my tips and tricks that I have picked up. It's not very difficult to do and you don't really need a lot of different supplies. You don't even need a lot of different colours of leather paint if you keep you designs as simple as mine. If you are new to painting check out your local second hand stores and on clearance racks in your favourite stores for leather and faux leather items that you can customize.

If you are new to painting on leather, you might want to try it out on something like this faux leather tote bag.

Tip: I prefer to plan and draw out my design on paper first. You can enlarge or reduce your artwork on a photocopier to test how your finished design will look.

Once you have figured out what your design will look like on paper, cut it out as I have (see above) and use a measuring tape to figure out where to place your design. I use painter's tape to keep the paper in place. Once you are happy with the placement of your design you are ready for the next step - transferring the design onto the leather.

Tip: I placed magazines and books inside the tote bag to create a firm surface to work on.

Place a sheet of white transfer paper under the paper. Make sure that the white chalky side of the transfer paper is facing the leather. Use a sharp pencil to trace your design. 

Tip: You can trace as much or as little of the original design as you like using the tracing paper. I often leave out a lot of the smaller details and then add them in later using a white Stabilo pencil.

By the way, here's my supply list for this project: Gap faux leather tote bag, white transfer paper, Angelus flat white acrylic leather paint, white Stabilo pencil, pencil, assorted paint brushes, measuring tape and painter's tape.

This is a close up of the transferred design. The chalky lines are faint and will be easy to remove once you are done.

Now you are ready to paint. If you are feeling a little nervous about making a mistake and want to practice with your paint brushes first, I suggest doing so on scraps of faux leather or a worn out leather item from the second hand store.

I am right handed, so I always start painting on the top left hand side and work my way over to the top right side. I try to make sure that my hand doesn't accidentally rub up against any of the wet paint as I go so I work from the top to the bottom. 

Don't overload your paint brush. Allow your paint strokes to flow naturally and be prepared to go over some areas more than once to achieve a solid white line. 

Tip: Leather paint is permanent which means that there are no "do overs". Take your time and think about each brush stroke.

Larger areas will require a few coats of paint to become completely solid.

I used four light coats of paint on the LOVE letters and waited for the paint to dry completely between each layer.

Once the paint is completely dry, use a soft clean cloth to wipe away all of the white transfer  and Stabilo pencil lines. 

This technique is a great way to personalize clothing, accessories and home decor items.

I hand painted this jacket for a styled shoot I participated in earlier this year. It was used as a photo prop for a wedding set up. The jacket was stored in a garment bag that I embellished with floral illustrations to co-ordinate with the jacket design using a Sharpie paint pen. 

My custom jacket and matching garment bag are currently included in a Giveaway on Instagram. The #loveisintheair contest closes on August 18, 2019 and you can find all of the details about the giveaway on a post my Instagram account.

You're Tote-ally Awesome - a Makeful DIY challenge

If you have been following me on Instagram you may have noticed that I have mentioned the Makeful community and Makeful TV a number of times. I was one of the first maker's to join the Makeful community last year and I have been encouraging all of my creative friends to sign up and join Makeful.

I recently received a simple cotton canvas tote bag in the mail from Makeful. Their logo was screen printed in the bottom corner of the bag and it came with a note inviting me to have some fun with the bag and transform it into something beautiful ... and so I did.

I spent a long time figuring out what I wanted to do with my bag. I knew I my direction would be something floral design with a creative quote but I wasn't sure what medium I wanted to use on my bag. Should I paint? Or maybe, sew? Or add an image using iron on transfers? 

I ended up doing a little bit of everything and I'm pretty happy with my final tote bag.

I started off by painting a quote with Martha Stewart's gold glitter paint. I should tell you that I added Martha Stewart's tintable fabric medium to all of my paints in this project.

Next I used a disappearing fabric pen to roughly draw out my flowers before I started painting my overall design.

I wanted my floral design to be colourful and fun. I created a cup sleeve a little while ago for my reusable Starbucks cup which you can see in the first photo, and it was the inspiration for my colours on the bag.

After painting the flowers I decided to sew some of my vintage buttons to the bag using different colours of embroidery floss for visual interest and for a surprise functional reason. You see I could not stop at just decorating the outside of the bag. I had to add some details to the inside of the bag as well. 

I added a felt pocket inside the bag to store smaller items like pencils and business cards. I also added an iron on transfer as a label so everyone would know that I created the bag. 

Above you can see my felt pocket and flowers  before I added them to the inside of the bag.

I sewed two large buttons inside the bag to hold the pocket. I sewed two button holes on the felt pocket. Once the pocket was attached to the inside buttons, I wanted to make sure that the pocket did not fall off the buttons easily, so I cut out two felt flower shapes with tight button holes and placed them as shown (above bottom right).

And now I'm off to enter my tote bag to the Makeful weekly challenge. If you sign up to be part of the Makeful community you can enter the weekly challenges as well or just check it out for inspiration! Either way, get ready to be inspired. 

You can check out more totebags from this weekly challenge at #toteallymakeful #bemakeful.

Let's paint some onesies! A baby shower party DIY.

Here's a fun and creative party idea for a baby shower - painted onesies! I recently set up a baby shower party display at Creative Bag and I incorporated my painted onesies into the party display by hanging them up like bunting.

The concept is that you invite each guest to paint a onesie at the shower as party activity.

Set up a table so guests can paint their onesie and then set up a second area so that you can hang the onesies to dry before the party ends. 

Gather your supplies: plain white onesies, small paper bags with handles (one for each onesie), Martha Stewart tintable fabric medium, craft paint in assorted colours, assorted paint brushes, disappearing fabric ink pen and something to mix your paints on. 

Optional: my free printable to trace.

1. Insert the small paper bag into the top of the onesie as shown above. The bag will protect your fabric so that the paint does not bleed through to the back and you can use it like a hanger later to hang the onesie to dry.

2. Use the disappearing ink pen to draw out your design on the onesie. For guests that do not feel they are very crafty or can draw, allow them to trace one of the designs from my free printables using the disappearing ink pen.

3. You can make any paint into a fabric paint by adding Martha Stewart's tintable fabric medium. Follow the fabric medium instructions on the bottle for more details.

4. Once everyone has completed painting their onesie, hang them up on display so they can dry and everyone can see them. I used baker's twine and small clothespins to hang our onesies. The disappearing ink will take a few hours to disappear so don't worry if you see the purple lines for a while.

download free printable here

Check out my birds and bees baby shower party post here for more inspiration.

watercolour pencil experiment on fabric bags

If you have been following me on Instagram you might have seen the watercolour drawings that I created during our family vacation in St. Thomas last month. Next to my camera, I almost always pack a small pad of watercolour paper, some watercolour pencils and a few paint brushes when I travel. 

This week I though that it would be fun to experiment with my watercolour pencils to see if they would work on these fabric favour bags. 

I knew that if I was planning to make dozens of favour bags that I would have to come up with some simple graphics that would be easy to recreate on each bag. I would have to come up with something quite different from these watercolour paintings that I created on my holidays.

And this is what I came up with!

 Of course, I had to add some text to one of my designs. I think these bags would be adorable for a Valentine's day gift, a wedding favour, a baby shower or a crafting party. 

What do you think? Want to try to make these yourself? Here's what I did to create my abstract watercolour "blob" ...

Gather your supplies: Derwent watercolour pencils, cotton fabric drawstring bags, assorted watercolour paint brushes, paint palette, two containers to hold water, a pencil sharpener and some paper towels.

Top left  I inserted a small board into my bag so that the watercolour paint didn't soak through to the back of the bag. Mix up your watercolours in your mixing tray using the pencil crayon colours of your choice. I used (39) turquoise blue, (40) turquoise green, (44) water green and (48) may green.

Top middle and right  Starting on the left side of the bag, I painted a single stripe of turquoise blue using a wide flat paint brush. While the first stripe was still wet I painted a second stripe using turquoise green that overlapped the first stripe slightly ... 

Bottom left and middle then I continued to add two more stripes using water green and may green, again overlapped each one so that the colours blended together. 

Bottom right  Once the paint dried I was able to add extra depth to each colour by drawing directly onto the stripes using wet pencils. I blended the pencil strokes using additional watercolour paint and my paint brush until I achieve the look I wanted.

Tip: If you want to add a word over your watercolour "blob" like I did with the pink love bag, it is best to wait until the background is completely dry before adding more paint for the lettering. 

I hope that I've inspired you to make something this weekend!