DIY Craft: Personalized Santa Bag

I saw a really cute customized "Santa Bag" on Pinterest a while back and looked into buying one. The one I found ran between $50 - $100, which was a little too pricey for me. So I looked into Etsy, and there are some cute ones on there as well for around $30 - $50. Which now, after completing this project, doesn't seem so unreasonable. The ones you can buy are normally screen-printed, but I completed this project with the new Sharpie Stained fabric markers. They have a fine tip which was perfect for the small details.

Here's what I used:
• 1 large canvas drawstring laundry bag I got on Amazon for $11
• 3 Sharpie Stained Markers (about $2 each - 2 red and 1 black)
• Artist's graphite transfer paper (I already had this, but a pack of 20 sheets is around $9)

Steps:
1. Print out your design you would like to use. I designed mine in Adobe Illustrator and printed it out on several sheets of paper (since the overall bag is 24" x 36") and taped them together to recreate my large design. If you're feeling bold, you can freehand your design or use stencils.

2. Use your transfer paper underneath your design (the graphite side goes down onto your fabric - practice if you've never used this before), and trace your design using a ball point pen so the design will transfer onto the fabric. When you're done, you will have a pencil outline on your fabric. You can find out more information about using transfer paper HERE.

3. Simply fill in the outline with the sharpie fabric markers. It's just like a coloring book :).

Tips:
* You may want to wash and iron your laundry bag before use - just in case it shrinks. There were also several wrinkles in my fabric I didn't think about before I started and had to work around them when I was using my fabric pens. Next time I will iron first!
* When using the fabric markers, use a piece of cardboard inside the laundry bag to make sure your ink doesn't bleed through to the other side.

I'd love to see finished products if you do this project!

Happy Friday

Just a couple of quick announcements.

1. I've finally joined the ranks and started promoting my Etsy shop on Facebook. Feel free to go ahead and "like" me: https://www.facebook.com/homemadeheartland

If I get to 100 likes, I'll offer a promo code for the holidays!

2. People, I have been crafting again. I've got some good ones coming up, but they're all holiday appropriate, and since Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, I'll save them for a couple of weeks.

Until then, I'll leave you with this video, and a "Happy Friday!"

Obligatory Halloween Post

We had a great October! We had something going on every weekend with our families, so it will be a nice change of pace to just relax at home this coming weekend. This year, Judah went as legendary KSU coach Bill Snyder:

We used mousse and baby powder for the gray hair and hot glued some felt to a headset so it wouldn't hurt his head. He didn't really want to carry the clipboard (his "playbook"). This is the only picture I could get where he wasn't crying while holding it. He also was having no part of glasses or me drawing any sort of wrinkles on his face.

He's still too young for traditional trick-or-treating so we headed over to my Grandparent's house for a little one-house trick or treat.

You can see from the photos that the "gray hair" wasn't the most long-lasting solution and was only on the top of his head. At least he smelled good ;)

I think he could get used to the whole "treat" aspect of Halloween:

I hope everyone had a treat and chocolate-filled Halloween and that no one got tricked with eggs or TP! I'm looking forward to next year when Judah can really get into the spirit of the Holiday and do some real door-to-door celebrating.