Awesome Altered Bag from Danni

Hello Peep's

It's Dannii here with another monthly tutorial for the Crafter's Cupboard.

My mum came for a visit last month and we spent a day shopping together. She's such a sweet heart, she brought me a gorgeous hand painted  leather handbag of an Owl. This got me thinking about painting my own type of handbags.

So, whilst out shopping this week I came across these cheap tote bags and figured it would be the ideal style to give handbag painting a crack. Using some of my new Paper Artsy fresco paints and Jo Sonja's textile medium (thanks Jennifer for letting me know about this medium) for fabric painting,  from my stash  I mixed 2 parts paint, 1 part textile medium making sure I mixed well with a palette knife.

Then I used a credit card to swipe the paint using Paper Artsy Fresco Jade over the front of the  bag

Then using a fan brush I stippled the paint around the edges, so the background didn't look too blocky.
Using a soft grey lead once the paint was dry, I used a ranger heat gun to speed up the process and quickly sketched out a face for the front of the bag.

Once I was happy with the sketch. I used my flesh coloured paint mixed with textile medium to block in the face  and paper Artsy Fresco Prawn to block in the hair.

Making sure I gave the face quite a few coats between drying.

Once I was happy with the coverage

I used a Paper Artsy stencil  PS016 and Paper Artsy fresco paint Little Black Dress to decorate the background around the face.

I also used a piece of bubble wrap to stamp and a Paper Artsy Electica stamp set EEV06 to decorate the background.
Once I added the background I used paper Artsy chalk and my flesh paints to add highlights to the face.

Then Irish cream and cinnamon were added for shadows.

A touch of Prawn and Flesh was added to the cheeks, lips and throat for blush

and the eyes were worked on with the Cinnamon and Irish Cream Fresco Paints

Once I was happy with the flesh tones

more work was added to the eyes using Jade for the Iris

and adding more highlights to the face and hair using paints, ink intense pencils and pitt pens

The face is nearly completed at this stage just a few more details to the eyes adding highlights

and brighter colour to the lips using Posca pens and pitt pens

Once I was happy with the over all look of the face. It's back to the background

stamping with prawn and chalk and adding a butterfly from Dina Wakley stamp set

 Scrbbly insects - MDR44499

 to the hairline and colouring it with silks

which is also ideal for painting on fabrics

I am pretty happy with the out come of the bag and the textile medium was great to work with as it kept the paint wetter longer so I was able to blend well with the paints.

The paint (with the help of the textile medium) has stuck down well and appears to have set in to the fabric. I don't know if I will give it a coat of mod podge or not -  I really don't think it's needed.  I have given it a good scrub and wiped it down with a wet sponge with no paint peeling or lifting. So hopefully this tote will be quite useful for carrying my products to art journal class as well as being an original and pretty bag to look at.

All the materials I have used can be purchased from Crafter's Cupboard here

I am off to the shops now to buy a  few more of these bags. They're going to be great presents for family and friends

Give it a go -  this was really an easy project to make

I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to leave a comment

I love to hear from you all

Until next time

get out there  play, create and enjoy with mixed media.