Jul 26, 2010

Freezer Paper Tote Bags with Erin from Lemon Tree Creations

Erin from Lemon tree is ALWAYS full of great ideas. 
I am excited she is sharing this great gift idea with us today.


Hello everyone at Just Another Day in Paradise! My name is Erin and I'm a weekly contributor over at Lemon Tree Creations. I was so excited when Larissa contacted me to participate in Christmas in July, so here goes!
Today I'm going to share a project that I used for everyone last Christmas and went over really well, these freezer paper spray paint
bags.

I saw a great tutorial on V & Co a few months ago on making wheat pillows with freezer paper and spray paint, and I loved the idea. Unfortunately I didn’t really have a need for pillows, so I decided to see if it would work on these tote bags, and it was perfect!!
I printed this wheat stencil from Vanessa’s site, traced it onto some freezer paper and cut out the leaves.
I arranged the leaves on the bag and ironed them down. Luckily, they peeled off easily and could be re-ironed on if I changed my mind about spacing or layout.
I taped off an inch at the top of the bag because I wanted to keep a beige rim, and then spray painted it with two light coats of paint.

When it was dry, I just peeled off the freezer paper and was done!
It turned out so great! The freezer paper bonded really well to the bags so the paint didn’t
bleed
at all, and the stencil lines looked really sharp.

Once I saw how well this turned out I had to make more! For this brown bag I followed the same steps as for the blue one, and just spray painted the whole bag, including the handles. It turned out great, but took forever to do the entire thing and used most of a can of spray paint. But I still really like it.



I thought that a quicker way to make a bag like the one above would be to just start with a brown bag and spray paint the stencil area white, but this didn’t work. The paint just soaked into the bag and didn’t show up at all. So I used a few
leftover scraps of linen, taped off little squares, cut out leaf and tree stencils with the freezer paper and spray painted those.
I then went against my no-sew policy and hand stitched them onto the bag. I was reminded why I don't like to hand sew-it took forever! But the end result was perfect and I was really happy with it. The spray paint did bleed a little on the linen, but it wasn't that noticeable and still looked good.



Everyone loved their bags and I just made a summer version for myself last month. I used a perfect summer blue, and went for a big flower design instead. It
turned out just how I had wanted (a rare thing around here), and I can't wait to take it to the beach!!

Once I made this one I had so many ideas for other fun bags. You
could do cute stripes, circles, letters, or numbers. For kids you could use any fun shape that you are willing to cut out of freezer paper: boats, trucks, stars, flowers, the customization options are endless!!

I hope you like these totes and have found a little inspiration for one (or more) of your Christmas gifts!! Happy present making and stop by to see me every Mondays at Lemon Tree Creations!
Thanks for having me Larissa!
Erin


I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these bags. They would make awesome 
gifts...I mean really who wouldn't want one of these??? 

Thanks a ton Erin!

8 comments:

ificould said...

QUICK question- are the bags washable after you spray paint them? Also, does it make them stiff or crunchy?? (I've wondered the same thing about the pillows).

Lauren said...

Freezer paper is the bomb diggity! I've never used it to make a reverse stencil, though, interesting idea...

And in (sort of) response to the comment before me, when I stencil, I always use tulip fabric paint so they don't get crunchy. Although I do have a shirt I made using spray paint and it's not crunchy either.

Erin A said...

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if they're washable. I have never washed a tote bag before and these were no exception. Thy were only SLIGHTLY stiffer, but the totes were a bit stiff in the first place. After using them for a few weeks they were completely softened up. It just seemed like the normal stiffness that you would have with a new bag. Hope that helps!

thesleepyknitter said...

Love these bags! So pretty.

Where do you buy freezer paper, and is there some other name for it or a similar product that can be substituted? I tried to buy some at our local Wal-Mart (the only store available in my little town), and they said they don't carry it anymore, and they suggested Reynold's Parchment Paper. Is that the same thing?

Thanks for your post!

Larissa@Just Another Day in Paradise said...

sleepyknitter-

freezer paper can normally be found at any grocery store.

Parchment paper doesn't work in replacement...

I hope you can find it, it is pretty stinking awesome to use.

Abbie said...

I am definitely going to try this. Also, I checked out the Krylon spray paint web site and it said that their spray paint is washable.

Anonymous said...

I love this idea! I hope you don't mind that I posted a link to your project on my blog? I thought this was such an awesome idea I just had to let everyone know! Thanks for sharing!

Elsa said...

ooooh, this is cute and love it lots!
found you on Tipnut.com!

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