Mother's Day: Fabric Art Zipper Totes

Mother's Day is around the corner and it's time to plan ahead for that special day where every mother hopes to receive a charming, handmade gift. Here's a wonderful gift choice that's both creative and useful. Our little canvas pencil bags are great for open ended fabric art and make adorable carry-all bags for grown ups. Wouldn't you carry THIS in your purse? You could use it as a make-up bag, take it to the gym, or use it to organize all that stuff that falls to the bottom of your purse. Imagine the possibilities!

These samples use BioColor® Scraper Art and Easy Grip Stampers, but this project is open ended so children can paint their fabric bags any way they like. Be sure to use BioColor® Paint for vibrant colors that will stay permanent on the fabric after washing. Simply pre-mix the paint with BioColor® Fabric Medium first. This is a quick, easy and inexpensive process demonstrated in this BioColor® Fabric Art video.

In these samples, we've used Sea Life themed Easy Grip Stampers. Notice in the photo that you paint ONTO the stamper directly with a brush BEFORE stamping onto fabric. This gives you a nice, clean design. We've combined the stampers with Scraper Art techniques, where you simply sweep the paint across the fabric with a BioColor® Scraper, either in an organized fashion with dots of paint, or in a free-form fashion with random squiggles of paint, all scraped across the fabric in one sweeping motion. The special effect you see with the Scraper Art if one of the "magical" properties of BioColor® and it's so easy that even a young child can do it.

If you like the idea of Fabric Art but are not keen on the zipper totes, these same design ideas would also look great on Canvas Pillow Cases, or Canvas Duffel Bags. But my personal favorite is the little zipper tote because I know I would use it all the time. I hope these ideas give you a head start on your Mother's Day planning! And as you plan ahead, remember how long most mothers keep their mother's day presents, because nothing speaks of love like a young child's handmade gift.

Materials:
1) Canvas Pencil Bags
2) BioColor®, set of all 11 Original Colors
3) BioColor® Scraper
4) Easy Grip Stampers, Sea Life Theme

Optional:
5) Stubby Chubby Brushes
6) Nancy Bottles
7) Sharpie® Ultra Fine Line Markers

Again, be sure to check out this this BioColor® Fabric Art video for a more detailed view of fabric art techniques.