Layers of Love!

I'm up on Nathalie Kalbach's blog today for the Creative Squad. You can read all about my Layers of Love art journal spread HERE.

In case you missed it, here is my March project for Vacation Mode - I made a travel bag. 

When I go on vacation, I like to take along an art project or travel journal to capture my experiences. I up cycled a small canvas bag that came filled with some yummy tamales for my project. You could use a purchased canvas bag, or sew one yourself if desired. (Mine is about 8 x 10 inches/20.5 x 25.5 cm) I like how the printing peeks through my stamped design. Now I have a fun bag I can fill with art supplies, or use to fill with found treasures on my vacation. 

Start by inserting a piece of cardboard into the canvas bag. This will keep the paint from leaching through the other side. 

I found the best way for me to get good paint coverage on the Art Foamies stamps was to use my gel plate and a brayer to adhere the Quinacridone Gold paint onto the foam. You could also use a palette instead of the gel plate. Do both sides of the bag, and be sure this paint layer is completely dry. 

Through trial and error, I discovered I was able to match the stamped images up better if I started with the negative impression, and then stamped the positive with the Cobalt Turquoise Hue acrylic paint. Let dry. As you can see, there are a lot of imperfections in matching the images, but I’m ok with that. 

I used a gold pen, and a Posca metallic orange pen to add some doodles to the bag on both sides. I don’t plan to wash this bag, so did not worry about using washable pens, but take that into consideration if you plan to wash your bag.  

Now, it’s time to add some embroidery. I used turquoise thread and stitched the bottom of the bag with a Blanket Stitch. Next, on the front panel, I added French Knots inside the circles I’d drawn with the pens, using a yellow orange thread.  

I wanted to make a charm to add to the bag, so I stamped the Cityscape image onto Shrink Plastic with archival black ink, and cut a section of it to use. Punch a hole into the plastic, then heat it and shrink it with your heat gun. 

My final touches on the bag were to add the shrink and metal charms with embroidery thread, and tie loops of bright orange and yellow orange threads to each section of my blanket stitch at the bottom. Once I’d tied the loops on, I trimmed them to the same length. Now I just have to plan my next trip and decide what to fill my artsy travel bag with!