DIY Teacher Gift: Personalized Market Bag

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Canvas bag teacher gift, DIY Personalized Teacher Gift, image transfer teacher gift, personalized canvas bag teacher gift

I’m always looking for great ideas for teacher gifts to give at the end of June. Being a teacher myself, I always factor in whether it’s something that I would love to receive as a gift myself. This idea actually was given to me by the art teacher at my school. I noticed in her room she had a whole bunch of really nice canvas bags. I asked what she was doing with them, and she explained that she was doing a Mother’s Day project with some of the primary children. I thought this was such a great idea for both Mothers’ Day, and as a year end gift for my daughters’ teachers, that I went out and bought a bunch. My daughter did three for her Omi, Grandma and Grandma T. for Mother’s Day. We will do two more before the end of June for her teachers as well. Here’s how the Mother’s Day ones turned out:

All you need for this project is:

• Canvas bag – I found mine at a local craft store.
• Fabric Crayons or felts – These were harder to find. Michaels didn’t have any, but I was able to find the fabric {Sharpie) felts at Staples and my job share partner found fabric crayons at a craft store.
• Bling – we used sparkly flowers, butterflies and little round jewels to glue onto the picture.
• Fabric glue
• A laser photocopied color, or black and white photo of your child.

I used Citra Solv to transfer the photo image to one side of the canvas bag. This is pretty straight forward… just remember to enlarge your photo {copy} so it fits nicely on the bag. I had mine done at Staples.

Then have your child take the fabric crayons or markers and get to work! My daughter loves drawing and spends MANY hours a week, so I didn’t really feel she needed to do a practice copy on a piece of paper first, but if I was doing this with my class, I’d have them all do a practice copy first to make sure they fill up all the space and get a good idea of what they’d like to draw and color. After the drawing is complete, you should heat set the fabric. I just used an old tea towel and placed it on top and lightly ran a hot (no steam) iron over it for a minute or so.

Then, you can help your child glue on the little “jewels” or “bling” with some fabric glue. This needs to set about 72 hours before it can be washed.

Aren’t they adorable?! Stylish too!!

Linking up to the parties listed here as well as:

WOW

Debbie Doos

Coastal Charm

French Market Bag

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burlap bag with french graphic, diy burlap bag with french graphic, Freezer paper to fabric transfers, French Market bag, image transfers to fabric

I picked up this burlap bag at a local thrift store, thinking I could either use is as is, or cut it up and use the burlap for another project. I didn’t really like the Winnipeg graphic on it…

I tried turning it inside out, and it actually looks great with the inseams showing, so I decided I’d try to transfer a french graphic to it from the Graphics Fairy (sorry I can’t find the exact link now!)

For this project, I’m using the Freezer Paper Method. I followed a great tutorial that you can check out here: tutorial

Here’s what I did:

1. Cut a piece of freezer paper just slightly larger than a standard piece of printer paper.

2. Use spray adhesive to attach the printer paper to the side of the freezer paper that isn’t “waxy”.

3. Trim the freezer paper to the exact size of your printer paper.

4. Print image of your choice (print mirror image for ones with lettering) on your inkjet printer (make sure the ink prints on the waxy side).

5. Dampen your surface very lightly with a sponge or spray bottle (or fine mist) and burnish the back of the paper until image is transferred.

I chose this image from the graphics fairy because it has that “french market” feel to it and I will be using this bag for grocery shopping and for taking lunch to work!

Here it is in action at Whole Foods…

 

Voila! A very chic French Market Bag!

Linking up at the parties here and WOW and Graphics Fairy

T-Shirt Scarves Trial and Error

Tags

Christmas gift ideas, diy gifts, diy scarves, infinity scarves, no-sew scarves, t-shirt scarf tutorial

I’ve been intrigued by some of the t-shirt infinity scarves I’ve seen on Pinterest and decided to try my own… I can’t wear scarves with any wool in them because I’m allergic to it and it itches like crazy. Soft t-shirt material seems like a good alternative!

I first started out with two Old Navy t-shirts that I don’t wear much anymore and cut strips horizontally across, stopping about 2 inches from the seam.

Then I tried pulling and stretching each piece, but found that neither of these shirts curled like they are supposed to!!! How disappointing. These shirts were 100% cotton and seemed like the right kind of thickness.

So, I headed out to the thrift store and picked up a couple more t-shirts… and proceeded to cut them into 1 – 1.5 inch strips:

Then, doubtfully this time, I started to pull each strip and this time it worked beautifully! The teal striped shirt was 100% cotton from American Eagle Outfitters, and the other one was 100% bamboo. Both were slightly thicker than the Old Navy t-shirts that failed miserably. I also tried a grey cotton t-shirt that was thicker than these two, but it didn’t curl as nicely… it looks o.k. but these ones are definitely better. So it seems that the thickness is the key to having the strips curl in on themselves  – not too thin, but not too thick!

I chose this teal striped one because I thought it would look really interesting once cut, with the alternating colors. I think this is my favorite and teal is my FAVOURITE. COLOR. EVER. (in all of it’s wonderful hues).

This bamboo one I liked not only for the color, but because it feels so soft!!

Here’s a picture of the grey one – notice how the curls are a little flat? It just does not look as nicely rounded as the other two. This one was a little thicker and was 100% cotton. YUCK.Linking up to the parties listed here and WOW.