Valentine's Day Tote Bag Tutorial & Printable

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Can anyone ever have too many tote bags? Especially super cute ones with glitter?! I think not. Although it’s a great gift for any age, this Valentine’s Day Tote Bag (originally written for Crafts Unleashed) is great to make for or with the tween girls in your life.

A fun project that won’t make your 12 year old roll her eyes? Total score, right? I’m not sure if the young people are still using the term “Totes” for “totally” but even if it’s somewhat out of fashion, it’s Valentine’s Day…you’re suppose to be cheesy!

Valentine’s Day Tote Bag & Printable Tag

Materials:
– White Cotton Tote Bag
– Martha Stewart Crafts™ Punch All Over the Page™ – Heart or Cutting Machine
– Fabric Paint or Acrylic Paint with Fabric Medium
– Freezer Paper
– “You’re Totes Awesome!” gift tag
– Baker’s Twine

Instructions:

1. Use a heart punch to cut out approximately 100 hearts out of the freezer paper (you may need more or less with different sized bags). Alternately, you can use a cutting machine (I love my Silhouette!) to cut out all the hearts as well.

2. On a low temperature setting, iron the first heart in the center at the top of the bag.

3. Continue positioning each heart, off-setting each row. (See picture below)

4. Apply a thin layer of fabric paint to the exposed bag. I’d suggest applying multiple thin layers instead of one super heavy layer of paint to prevent the color from soaking through to the other side.

5. Continue to apply paint until exposed fabric is covered completely. Allow to dry.

6. Once the paint has dried, you can begin to remove the freezer paper hearts. It’s fun to see your pattern emerging!

7. Optional: Optional: Depending on the look you want to achieve, you can go in and hand paint a few of the hearts. I’m kinda crazy about gold glitter right now so I went the gold/matte gray route but I’d love to see this with gray and bright pink too!