A Hand-Painted Gift Bag

Recently Baby Girl attended a birthday party for one of her school friends and needed a gift.  We decided to put together a jewelry making kit inside of a hand-painted reusable tote. 

Fun Fact:  Whenever I'm not sure what to give as a gift, I love to put together fun little kits.  Art supplies, jewelry making, bath and beauty, you name it!

Read on to see what went into this gift, as well as how easy it is to personalize your own gift bags.

Simple Supplies

Left:  A plain yellow reusable cloth tote.

Right:  Beads and elastic cording.  

*I really wanted to buy more beads, but Baby Girl insisted on adding a teddy bear instead :)

Step 1

I used a Sharpie to write Chloe's name on the bag.

Step 2

I added a couple of decorative flowers, again with the Sharpie.

Tip:  Keeping your design simple makes painting a whole lot easier.

Step 3

Prep your bag for painting by inserting a catalog, cardboard or pad of paper.  Not only does this help to smooth your painting surface, but it also prevents the paint from bleeding through the material.

(Thank you Cabela's!)

Step 4

I painted the leaves and petals in solid colors first, then added the contrasting details once the first layer of paint dried.

Step 5

After adding the tag and the bear the gift was done....or was it?  It seemed kind of plain looking....

....and when I hung it up safely in my closet (next to my hair clips) I realized why - It needed hair accessories!

So I got out a my glue gun and a couple of flowers and got (back) to work.

Doesn't that look so much better now?

The Finished Bag

I went ahead and took a proper photo of the bag, complete with hair accessories!
 Ahhhh, it looks soooooo much better!!!

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015