Gifting the Bridesmaids: DIY Monogram Totes

I knew I wanted to gift my ladies a reusable tote bag to hold all of their goodies, but I found a lot of monogramable bags online to be fairly expensive. When I found this tutorial, I had the perfect solution! I pretty much followed Ashley's instructions, but I will still share what I did here.

Supplies:
Canvas bags
Paper Doilies
Adhesive Spray
Craft Paint
Brushes

I began by using the spray adhesive on the bottom side of the paper doily and positioning it to the corner of the tote bag.  I made sure to smooth the doily completely and that there were no areas that had not bonded with the canvas.

Then I carefully painted over the doily with black paint. I found out quickly that it is much better to be conservative with the amount of paint on the brush and have to apply two layers. Having too much paint can cause seeping in between the doily stencil.

Once painted, I let the bags sit for two to three minutes before removing the doily.

 



To add the monogram, I attempted two methods. I initially printed and taped a letter to Martha Stewart Adhesive Stencil Film and used an exacto knife to make a stencil. Because of the intricacy of the letters I was using, the adhesive stencil was a total fail. (If I was using block letters I think it would have been a different story.) The second method yielded much better results. This time I printing letters, cut them out with scissors, and traced them with pencil the old fashioned way. To keep the stencil in place I used the Krylon Adhesive Spray again while I traced.

To finish them off, I painted the letters to match the ladies' monogram champagne flutes. After they were dry, I used a block eraser to eliminate any pencil lines that were still visible.

Tada! Affordable mongrammed tote bags!

Did you want your bridesmaid gifts to follow a theme?