Kate Spade New York has always made beautiful things, but they have caught my eye more than ever the past few months with their "live colorfully" campaign. I seriously cannot get enough of the eye-candy that they post on both their instagram (@katespadeny) and their tumblr. Some of my favorite recent images they have posted are shown below.
I took my inspiration for this DIY by combining the things I love most about each of these. I was inspired by the bold floral prints in the first photo, both the saying and the color blocking in the second image, and the bright color palette of the third photo, which depicts street posters for their #livecolorfully campaign. Would you like to see what I came up with?!
You will need:
-A plain canvas tote
-A pencil
-Letter stencils (unless you are awesome at freehand lettering!)
-Some neon pink and black acrylic paint
-A paintbrush
-A ruler
-1/4 yard of bold floral fabric
-Scissors
-Stitch Witchery
-Hot glue gun
-A role of rick rack or ribbon
I purchased a plane canvas tote at my local Hobby Store for about $5. I bought a pretty large one that had outside pockets on one side. As you will see later, I made use of my pockets with this DIY, but you can certainly do any of this on a bag that does not have them.
The first thing you want to do is come up with a word or short phrase for your tote. You don't want to make it too long, or it might not fit! If you are stuck, Pinterest has lots of word art images that might help you out. I know it is difficult to see in this photo, but I chose "over dress" for my tote because I do it often.
Next, just use your black paint to fill in the letters.
Now use your ruler to help you draw a straight line all the way across the bottom of your bag, about 6 inches from the base. You will use your neon pink to paint everything below this line.
The photo above shows the tote after one coat of pint. There are obviously still several spots that need touch-ups, so make sure you watch for that. This canvas absorbs a lot of paint, and the texture makes it kind of difficult to cover on the first try! I flipped my bag over and did the same thing with the pink paint on the other side, with one change. That is the side with the large pockets that cover the entire middle, so I only painted pink below the pockets. Depending on your bag and your preference, you can do it my way or continue to paint 6 inches from the bottom all the way around!
After I painted beneath the pockets (again, as you can see- you will probably need 2 coats of paint), I cut two pieces of the floral fabric the size of each pocket.
Next, use your stitch witchery to attach your fabric to your tote. If you have never used it before, stitch witchery allows you to use an iron to attach one fabric to another. You just place it between the fabric and the tote, then follow the instructions on whatever kind you purchase to make sure you are ironing for the appropriate amount of time.
After you have used the stitch witchery to attach your fabric to your tote, you may want to add a little something to the edges of your fabric to keep them from fraying. For a solution, I used a hot glue gun to attach rick rack to the edges of my fabric-covered pockets.
What do you luvvly ladies think of the finished product?? Until I can afford to purchase one from Kate Spade NY, this will do just fine. I think my favorite part is that I can flip it around to either side, depending on my mood/what I am wearing!
