Thankful Painted Canvas Bag: An Easy & Colorful Fall Craft
I am such a fan of canvas tote bag projects! They are inexpensive blank canvases begging for a bit of color and creativity by adults and kids alike. This Thankful painted canvas bag project is no different. We are using kitchen sponges cut in fall shapes (like leaves or pumpkins) to stamp color on our canvas and letter stickers to create a fun fall message that gets revealed once the painting is finished.
For the message, I used both sides of my bag (you can do one or both). It was a great opportunity for tips on letter placement which varies depending on how many words you are writing. Happy Fall (or Apple Picking or Happy Turkey Day) would all be fun Fall phrases to add to your tote. On the other side, I wanted a nod to the Thanksgiving season with a bit of gratitude (and the word Thankful, but Grateful and Blessed would also be wonderful). And these are just some suggestions…hence the beauty and freedom of this project to personalize however you like.
For the paint colors, use whatever colors make you think of fall (as long as the paints are fabric paints). I like to mix colors, so I used yellow, orange, red for my Happy Fall side and added brown and pink as well for my Thankful side.
Ready to start painting? Let’s go!
HAPPY FALL & THANKFUL Painted Canvas BagS
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- Cotton Canvas Bag (White or Natural color)
- Letter Stickers (2 packs)
- Fabric Paints (Fall leaf colors)
- Palette Knife (Optional)
- Cheap Kitchen Sponges
- Holiday Cookie Cutters (like leaves or pumpkins) (Optional)
- Sharpie Pen
- Scissors
- Piece Of Cardboard OR Brown Paper about the size of the inside of the bag
- Wax Paper
- Wet Palette Container (& Palette Sheets) (optional-see Tips below)
MATERIAL TIPS
- Cotton Canvas Bag – Any canvas tote bag will work for this as long as its cotton, so the paints will set properly. I have used inexpensive ones from Target’s dollar section, ones from Michael’s as well as Amazon and they all turned out beautifully. This one featured here is a bit thinner than I tend to use normally, but the results were still great.
- Letter Stickers – The bigger the better in my opinion. Even though the size may feel large in the store, it won’t be when you add them to the bag. I’ve done this project a few times and thicker straight lines always come out cleaner than more curvy script font. Also, buy 2 packs! You never know when a sticker may rip or if there will be enough letters for the words you are trying to create (and who wants to run back to the store hoping they have another one).
- Cookie Cutters – To create the shape of your sponge you can either: 1) Freehand draw, 2) Use this leaf PDF I’ve shared which is my freehand version or 3) use a holiday cookie cutter. I’m a big fan of holiday cookie cutters because a) they’re cheap, b) they’re a firm shape that you can draw around (especially if you do this project with kids) and c) they’re so versatile and reusable (i.e. crafting, baking, etc). I used cookie cutters on my past bags, but I used the shape of the leaf (PDF) for this one.
- Wet Palette Container – For any large painting projects (with a lot of colors or completed over a number of days), this is the BEST way to go as the paints don’t dry out. I have literally had this container 25 years from my college painting classes (yes, I just dated myself). Basically, its a rectangular box that has an air-tight lid. You buy a pad of the waxy sheets (like a pad of paper) that fits inside the box and the paints sit on the paper (not absorbing). Less paint wasted and not having to remix a color because it dried out, only to not get the same color as the original. A MUST for anyone that does painting projects regularly!
PREPPING THE Bag
As with all projects, the prep work is important for these bags. It’s pretty quick, but SOOO worth the effort! Please don’t skip!
1. Iron your bag, so the section you are painting on is flat and wrinkle-free.
2. Place the piece of cardboard or brown paper inside of the bag. Cut a piece of wax paper (about the size of the cardboard or brown paper) and stick the wax paper inside of the bag on top of the cardboard/brown paper. NOTE: This is a pic from a previous bag because I forgot to take one this time. Oops!
CREATING THE SPONGE SHAPES
3. Draw your shape on the sponge with a sharpie. This could be from the leaf PDF, a cookie cutter, or freehand. Cut the shape out with a scissors. Create a few more as you will be using several colors and its easier than washing out the single sponge every time you switch colors.
ADDING LETTER STICKERS TO BAG
How you add the letter stickers to your bag will depend on how many words you have. Let’s walk through the options.
Happy Fall Bag
4a. If you have 2 or more words, like the Happy Fall bag (or Apple Picking or Happy Turkey Day), then start at the beginning word and just stagger the next word or words, so the group looks centered enough on the bag. Be sure to press the stickers down a few times, so they stick well and hopefully don’t allow a lot of paint to creep under.
Thankful Bag
4b. If you have only one word, like Thankful (or Grateful or Blessed), then you’ll want to lay the stickers out in a way that helps the word look centered. Count the number of letters (in the case of Thankful, its 8 letters) and start with the center 1 (for odd) or 2 (for even) letters. In this case, I have an even number of letters, so I started with n and k, the center 2 letters. Stick them down (I look at the bag straps as a guide for what is center) and then work out from there. As I said before, be sure to press the stickers down a few times, so they stick well and hopefully don’t allow a lot of paint to creep under.
PREPPING PAINTS
There are a number of ways you can manage your paints depending on what you have available and how many colors you are using. The typical plastic palette does not work well for this project because you need more flat surface for your sponges than they usually have. So, let’s discuss some options.
Happy Fall Bag
5a. For the Happy Fall bag I only used 3 colors (red, orange, and yellow) to mix some pretty fall colors. To create the palette I doubled up some wax paper and taped it down to my table with painter’s tape. Easy, cheap, and quick. Just be gentle when you mix the colors with your palette knife, so you don’t tear the paper.
Thankful Bag
5b. For the Thankful bag, I wanted more leaf colors, so I mixed red, orange, yellow, brown, and pink in my AMAZING palette container. I gushed over this amazing tool in the Materials Tips above, so I won’t repeat here, but it truly is awesome and worth the reasonable price.
STAMPING LEAVING ON BAG
6. Ok, let’s add leaves to the bag. Take one of the sponge shapes and smoosh it around in one of the paint colors. Once you’ve added enough paint to cover most of the sponge, stamp it on the bag covering a part of the letters.
7. Continue to stamp leaves on the bag, switching colors after every 4 or 5 leaves, so you get a variety on the bag. The goal is to cover the letters completely by the leaves as well and spread the leaves all over the bag.
8. Once you are finished adding leaves, carefully remove the letter stickers with a tweezers or your fingers.
PAINTING IN LETTERS (OPTIONAL)
9. I was pretty happy with the way the Happy Fall bag turned out, so I left it as is. The Thankful bag’s letters, however, did not turn out as clean as I had hoped. Rather than leave them as is, I decided to paint them in to make them pop better. I after playing with a few colors, I ended up with black. If you do decide to paint your letters in, use a small brush with firm bristles to make staying in the lines easier. (NOTE: I got some paint on the bottom right corner of my bag which you can see in the above pics. Oops! Rather than be annoyed, just turned it into an opportunity to “sign” the bag. Fun and nobody needs to know about the other paint.)
Once the paint dries, you have a festive fall or thankful painted canvas bag that can be gifted this Thanksgiving or just kept for yourself. This project is also great for your kiddos to create fun bags themselves that they can carry all of their after school and weekend activity items around in.