Re-purposed Canvas Tote with Eileen Hull's House Ornament Die Cut

Hello Blogland, I am here today with a fun re-purposed canvas tote using Eileen Hull's newest House Ornament die. I am sure you have received a canvas bag or 2 that maybe the logo no longer applies or you are bored with. I decided to give one of mine new life!! 

Here is my fun bag!!! This was a project that really allowed me to play with different techniques. Once I got going it was easy to just keep adding & adding.... This is a no sew project but you can easily add sewing to the list if you like. I still may zig zag stitch around the houses. 

The House Ornament die will cut a piece of mat board & score allowing you to make a strong 3D house. As I just wanted the house shape I made a template using the mat board piece, & then a piece of paper to mark where to cut off the tabs. This will make it easier to cut the tabs off the fabric shape as the score lines may not show up. 

Let's get started!! There is a supply list at the bottom of this post so you can see the products used that made this an easy no sew project. Start with either a plain canvas bag or as I did re-purposing one. The logo for this bag was in black so I covered it with a coat of black gesso, let that dry & then added a coat of white gesso. This covered the logo nicely & gave my bag some tooth so the stencil images would adhere nicely. Hot tip: wash you hands after this step so you don't put black finger smudges on your project!

While that was drying, it was time to cut some fabric. Using a few pieces of batik & some Heat & Bond Fusible Fleece was a good place to start. Following the directions I cut the fleece the size of the fabric needed. I ended up cutting each fabric piece separately.

I used my iron, on the steam setting to pre-shrink the fleece & then to adhere it on the back of the fabric (as per the directions). This will give my houses that puffy quilted look. I cut one house but realized I wanted to have a no sew option so my work around was to use another layer of iron-on adhesive. Using Heat & Bond Lite (this gives me the option of sewing) was the answer. You could use Ultra-hold instead for a stronger bond without sewing.

I simply cut a piece the size of my fabric, moved my iron to no steam, med heat & adhered according to the directions. 

This piece only has the fleece adhered.

Next step was to run these fabric pieces through & cut my houses. Put the piece fabric side down & run it through your Big Shot or equivalent. The steel rule die easily cut through the layers to leave me with the nice little house. I trimmed the flaps off using my template. Voila! 

I cut 3 houses & positioned them on my project to see what else I wanted to do.  

This is where the fun really started! I decided to make some stencils using Eileen's flower dies & acetate packaging. Next I sprayed the back of my stencils with Pixie Spray. This is a "light tack, repositionable adhesive for stencils" it helped stick the stencil down so my ink didn't bleed underneath making the image sharper. 

Using Colorblends 2, I stenciled flowers around where my houses would be, so some of the flowers would peak out behind the house. I heat set the flowers as I went adding layers of petals once the bottom flower was dry. 

Using a posca paint pen I outlined the flowers giving them a sketchy look. I also added a leaf diecut using Flock Transfer sheets. Love the look of this material. 

Time to add my houses. I heat set my houses with an iron, following the directions on the Heat & Bond package. I also had to add my wee Minion on there just for fun. He is made of fabric & I just followed the same steps as the houses, then cut fussy cut him out. 

Now my repurposed bag is already to go for a shop maybe at a fabric store so I can make another?!!! Thanks so much for joining me here. I hope that I inspired you to play with some of Eileen's dies, fabric & Thermoweb products! Have an inky day!!

Supplies:

Eileen Hull dies by Sizzix- House Ornament, Spring Leaves, Flower w/Heart Petal, Hydrangeas. 

Color Blends 2 in Pansy, Bay, Beach, Hydrangea, Sunshine, Wildberry,  Melon, Tutu, Coconut.

Therm O Web- Pixie Spray, Fleece Fusible, Heat & Bond Lite,  Flock Transfer Sheet in Green Envy.

Canvas Bag

Gesso & Black Gesso

Posca Pens in black. 

*Thanks to Therm O Web, Sizzix & Eileen Hull for supplying me products to experiment with!!!
*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.