DIY Painted Reusable Dog Bag

I love reusable bags. I take them to the grocery, the library, even Goodwill (but not the same ones I use at the grocery, ew). Most of mine are freebies, and while they work just fine, they aren't exactly fun to look at. My solution? Put a dog on it. (Or a cat. Or a bird, if you must.)

Since all of my regular reusable bags have some big, unfortunate, hard to cover logo gracing them, I got a fresh one to use. The extra outside pockets are what sold me. That and the 40% off coupon I had. In addition to a bag, you will also need fabric paint or a fabric marker (I used both because I couldn't find a metallic gold fabric marker), a ruler, an animal template (and a printer to print the template if you aren't drawing it freehand), scissors, a paint brush and a pencil.

This is a thick canvas bag, if using a thinner one, place a piece of cardboard inside the bag to prevent bleed through.

Print or draw a dog (or cat or bird) template. (Card stock is easier to trace around than plain paper.) Decide where on the bag it will go.

Trace around the template in pencil.

Decide where the stripes will start. Draw a line to mark the bottom of the first stripe. Measure and mark the top of the stripe (these stripes are 5/8" tall). To keep things easy, I made the stripes a ruler width apart.

Continue marking off stripes.

Fill in the stripes with a fabric marker. Be careful not to touch the stripes until they are completely dry and DO NOT color inside the animal outline. It took three coats to get the stripes this dark, and the canvas is still not completely saturated.

Allow fabric marker to dry.

Outline the animal silhouette with fabric paint. Use a paintbrush to spread the paint into a thin layer.

Add a second coat.

Let dry and enjoy!

*These are really quick, easy and cheap (less than $10) to make. If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift, this is it. For those who aren't animal lovers, a gold initial would also look great!