Personalized Totes for kids - Truly Lovely

Hello all you LOVELY Brassy Apple readers!!!

My name is Kassi and I am THRILLED to be sharing my Summer Fun idea here with you all!

I, along with my sister, Kayli, blog over at Truly Lovely!

We blog about all things we consider to be lovely including crafts, recipes, personal stories, you name it!

Right now I am in the midst of planning my summer wedding, so what better kiddo craft then something for my flower girls! This is one that you can do together with the kiddos and it doesn't cost much!!

It's directed more towards little girls of course, but you could tailor it to boys by changing a few things...
Watch for my Kid Friendly Tips along the way! :)

Cute Little Personalized Totes!

The items needed for this kid friendly craft are:

Little totes (I got mine at Hobby Lobby $2.99 for a packet of four)

Fabric Paint
Small paint brush

Name stencil

Iron on decals

Iron

Old newspaper
Large paper plate

First, be sure to lay newspaper down on your table or other work surface!

When working with kiddos and paint, covering everything that might get painted is a must!!

Lay out your totes on the newspaper.

I used my hand dandy Silhouette SD to cut out the girls' names in vinyl.

The Kristen font is a great one for a girlie but fun touch!
If your making a toy bag for a boy, Bradley is a more "manly" font for your little man!


Vinyl, makes a PERFECT stencil!

It's already sticky on the back, so peel away the backing, smooth your stencil over your little tote and your ready to paint.
Make sure if you have any a's, o's, or other letters with holes in the middle, that you peel the little circle cutouts and stick those in the center of your letters as well. More on this in a minute.

Kid Friendly Tip:

You could cut out your stencil a little larger so it's easier for the kiddos to stay inside the "lines" when they're painting.


Next, choose your paint color, then squirt some fabric paint onto the large paper plate.





Kid Friendly Tip:
Large paper plates are great for corralling different colors of paint and keeping it from seeping through thin newspaper onto your table. They also make a good spot for mixing paint colors!





Now, use the small paint brush to fill in the stencil on your tote.
Since I used white paint on dark colored totes, I painted on several coats, allowing for some drying time in between.
Once you've painted all of the names, allow to dry for a few hours so the paint will set well.

Kid Friendly Tip:
This a great time to grab a snack, or head outside to play for awhile!


Once the paint has dried help your kiddo peel the stencil off the tote.





Remember I mentioned earlier making sure you stuck the centers of your a's, o's and other letters with holes onto your tote? Well, here's why...
If you stick those on, you can paint right over the top of those, like here on Taylor's tote:





Then when you peel them off, your letters have holes in the middle instead of a completely painted in blob for those letters.
And that makes them look nicer! :)

Once you've finished your painting and removed your stencils, it's time to fancy up your totes!

A SUPER easy and inexpensive way is with iron on decals.

The flower ones I used came from Wal-Mart for a few dollars a packet.

Follow the directions for ironing your decals on.
Mine included placing a cotton towel over the top, then iron to tack.
Turn the fabric inside out and iron to adhere.

Here you can see, I used a tiny little craft iron.
It was perfect for this craft because it was small enough to stick inside the tote without the need for turning it inside out!

Be sure to help your children with the ironing part!!!
A hot iron is not exactly kid friendly!

Tada!!
A cute little personalized tote for your little lady to carry around this summer!!!

Thanks to Megan for having me over at the Brassy Apple!! It was a pleasure!!!

We would be thrilled if you would pop over to Truly Lovely sometime and say hello!!

Happy crafting friends!