• House Tour
    • Reveals
  • About
    • Smith Life
    • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Store Affiliates
  • Contact Me
    • Want a Button?
  • Shop
    • Floral Printable Planners
    • Paint eBooks and Packages
    • Wedding Binders & Extra Printables!
    • Planner Bundles
    • Planner Accessories
    • Home Decor Printables!
  • Cart
    • Bloglovin
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Happily Ever After, Etc.

Creating Our Own Fairytale

  • Happily Ever After, Etc.
  • Home
  • Home Decor
    • My Home
    • Paint
    • Before and After
    • Tablescapes
    • Mood Boards
    • Furniture
  • DIY & Crafts
    • New to Cricut – Start Here
    • Cricut
    • Resin
    • Scrapbooking
  • Organization & Planning
    • Organization
    • Planner
  • Holidays
    • Christmas
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Easter
  • Wedding
    • Cricut Wedding Projects
    • Free Wedding Binder
    • Bride Bag- The Ultimate Wedding Planner

DIY Canvas Bag Design with Watercolors

If you’re like me you can never have too many tote bags! I literally think I should get rid of half my bags every time I see them taking up the entire front hall closet… and then I get ready for a conference or a trip to the booth and realize I actually use these things!

So when I started my watercolor obsession I needed a new bag to keep supplies in. I’m setting up a little work station in the living room but until I have a permanent place to work a portable solution is the easiest thing to do.

And this little canvas tote was the perfect solution!

I absolutely love the quote on it! Especially since I’ve been called the paint lady at work for years! Of course, the best part of this little bag is that it’s a canvas tote which means (to me anyways) that it’s a blank canvas!

I knew I wanted to paint it right away so I broke out my Arteza watercolor pens and thought about a design. Since this particular bag is fairly text heavy I decided to go with a simple ombre watercolor background so that it wasn’t toooo busy. Plus it’s a super easy effect so if you’re just learning watercolor (or painting at all) you can totally do this.

Step 1: Prep Work

Alright y’all, when you’re working with watercolors (well… really any paints at all) you have to get ready first. Since this little canvas tote is canvas on the front and back I knew I needed to put something inside the bag or the color would bleed through and paint the back… and anything under the bag.

Cardboard would work in a pinch but since we’re using quite a bit of water to blend the colors the cardboard would get wet quickly. Plastic is the best solution but if you don’t have a plastic mat in the right dimensions try grabbing a large tupperware lid… perfect fit!

Make sure you have a bit of water to clean your brushes as well as water for blending and you’re good to go!

Supplies:

Canvas Tote
Watercolor Pens
Watercolor Paints
Plastic Lid/Mat
Water
Brushes

Step 2: Paint!

I’ve used these watercolor pens for months (I shared a few cards with y’all a couple months back that used these same colors!) so I knew they would be perfect for adding specific colors to spots. I technically could have used them for the entire bag but since we’re covering such a large area I decided to break out the big girl paints.

When working with watercolors the first step in an ombre is to lay down a layer of water over the surface you’re trying to ombre. So I basically painted a layer of water on the bottom portion of the bag… then I placed a bit of color down in the middle of the water!

I slowly worked that color back and forth so that it was darker in the middle and lighter on the top and bottom.

You’ll start to get this kind of splochy effect at first… and that’s ok. We’ve got to build the color to get to the final effect!

Keep adding color in denser amounts and fading it into the color above or below. Make sure to pick colors that will work well when mixed… I decided to fade purple into blue which works well since they’re near each other on the color wheel. If I was fading yellow into green you would have a murkier color in the middle… it’s possible just be careful when mixing not to over work the mixing areas so you’re colors stay crisp.

As I was building the color I went in with a few of my watercolor pens and added pops of color where they would look best… like this brighter blue at the top. The pens are great for adding color because there are so many colors to pick from… 98 colors is alot! Of course, you can mix your watercolor paints to make more colors but sometimes you don’t want to mix. Sometimes you just want to have the aqua blue ready to go and this pen made that soooo easy.

Once the main colors are added I decided I needed a little pop of color and added a bit of rose on the bottom half of the bag… don’t be afraid to add a fun color! Rose is still close to purple so it blended in well and was a fun accent.

Since we’re working with watercolor they blend beautifully as long as you keep that surface area wet!

Now we’re done!

I placed a towel inside to let this little guy dry… if you hang it up to dry all of the water will tend to run down towards the bottom of the bag mixing your colors and pooling on your floors. Just FYI… so adding a towel lets you keep this little guy laying down to dry.

This little guy is going to be perfect for keeping my watercolor paper and books in when I’m not using them but in the meantime I’ve been using it as a makeshift computer bag… it was too cute to leave home!

You made it through the entire post? That means you're one of my new favorite people! I'd love to be friends and see what else you would like to read about! Leave me a comment and then sign up for your very own FREE paint planner.... so that you can keep track of every single paint color with ease!
Welcome back! I'd love to be friends and see what else you would like to read about! Leave me a comment and then sign up for your very own FREE paint planner.... so that you can keep track of every single paint color with ease!

Show me some LOVE y'all:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Email

Related

«
»

DIY & Crafts 0

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

sidebar betsy I'm Betsy, Home Decor Enthusiast, Yorkie Mama, Crafter, Blogger, Picky Eater, Chief Mess Maker, Antique Hoarder and Graphic Designer. You can generally find me working on (attacking with a paintbrush) the 3 bed, 2 bath home we are currently renting! Our home might not be perfect but it is ours & if you hang out long enough you'll see that what we lack in know-how we make up for in passion!
Shop My Craft Room

Shop My Home

Featured Articles

15 Fabulous Ideas to Organize your Laundry Room
25 FREE Printables For Your Home!
What to do with EXTRA Paint with Happily Ever After Etc
10 Ways to Make Your Bed EXTRA Comfy with Happily Ever After Etc.
Ready to Pick your Perfect Paint Color? We'll help you with our 6 Day FREE E-Course

Hey y’all,

Profile

I'm Betsy, Home Decor Enthusiast, Yorkie Mama, Picky Eater, Chief Mess Maker, & Graphic Designer...

A Little Note!

Many of the links on Happily Ever After, Etc. are affiliate links. If you purchase a product after clicking an affiliate link, I receive a small percentage of the sale for referring you, at zero cost to you! How awesome is that? Purchasing through affiliate links is an easy, painless way to help out your favorite bloggers. Thank you so much for your continued love and support! Read the full disclosure here!

Instagram

Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2023 · Darling theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2023 · Darling Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in · Privacy Policy