Our Wedding: Bridesmaid Tote (gift)

I wanted to make some monogrammed tote bags for my bridesmaids.

All items needed:

• Iron (not pictured above)

• Any type of paint brush (I used a foam brush)

• Exacto Knife

• Freezer Paper

• Cutting board (I had a flexible cutting mat)

• Tape (optional)

• Fabric Paint

• Name/Initial printed in a large font/dark ink (I chose Monotype Corsiva)

• Canvas tote bag(s)

With your exacto knife, freezer paper wax side down, trace out the letter (through both papers). This is the most time consuming part, but doesn't really take that long. Tracing the letter can be more difficult than it seems especially if you're a perfectionist like myself! I think I stuck with a fairly easy font to trace though.

After it's traced you'll have a stencil on the freezer paper. I used tape to secure the sides of the freezer paper so it wouldn't move when I ironed it on to the canvas tote. Tape is not necessary but it helped me, and I also used it when tracing the stencil. I used one of my older "craft project" iron which did the job. Just iron on the freezer paper wax side down on to your canvas tote, it will stick to the tote.

Next, you can start painting inside the ironed on stencil.

Here they are drying! I gave it a good 4-5 hours to dry. I actually have one more tote to do...

After the totes are completely dried, peel off the wax paper slowly... this is the fun part! You should have nice, clean lines, and it should come off pretty easy. I did have some wax paper residue on some of them that I just scratched off with my finger nail.

I plan to put the bridesmaids' gifts in these totes with some beige or white tissue paper, and of course all of these colors match our wedding colors/theme!