Fignie - Bags - Dee - A Geekie Crafty Life

(I seem to add a wee note to my bloghop posts -- The pictures for some reason with stupid Blogger are going totally off their rotation -- I have tried and tried with different editing software to fix this, but no luck - gonna be talking to Geo about getting this sorted out)

Welcome to Lovebug Scrapbooking's "INSPIRE US!" blog hop!! Our blog hops take place on the last Saturday of every month. Thanks so much for joining us!

If you just happened by this blog and didn't realize a blog hop was taking place, please go back to Lovebug Scrapbooking http://www.lovebugscrapbooking.wordpress.com and start the Hop. You won't want to miss all the inspiration from our members....... or the prizes :-)

Our theme for August is "BACK TO SCHOOL".

Bloghop Time!!!

Back to school!! Well, I'm one of "those" people who don't have to even worry about "Back to School" ... cause frankly, it means ... nothing to our household :) BUT! I do have great memories of my 2 yrs in College and loving getting to go back to classes.

SO I created a very unique "Back to School" bag for about the price of $50 -- if that. I honestly don't remember how much the raw canvas bag costed (is that not a word?? Anyone know the proper way of phrasing that for me? lol) -- sorry! but, the supplies to alter it were cheap.

I used:

• Black and Florescent Pink cheapy acrylic water based paint from Wal-Mart - the big containers you can use for finger painting
• About 3 feet of 2.5 inch left over black material (Okay, it's part of the pant leg to a very very large pair of scrubs I never wore)
  
• left over pieces of fabric - pink minky - and random skull fabric
• Misc frame from my stash, and misc rhinestones
  
• KAISERCRAFT - Skull Album (it was a gift, and is often used as a template for my skull creations!)
  
• Fabric glue
• AND!! My new I-Rock tool -- holy smokes that was fun to put on all the rhinestone/pearl looking things. VERY fun!!
  

So, pretty simple things to change a bag!!

1. Picking the color I wanted on the front - that was an ordeal!! So, I rubbed on the pink paint with a spare rag. I left it dry some, and filled in the "blank" spots with some more. (I know it's not water proof, but honestly, the bag isn't leave my house)
   
2. Adding swirls - I used a permanent maker, and just sat down making randomly pretty looking swirls
   
3. Then - here's where I feel I went wrong!! I added the skull to it -- which, I'm not sure I like a whole lot.
4. Ok, so i found it looked really plain ... Off to make ruffles around the edge -- first time for me to do that ... EVER!! I broke more pins and had my sewing machine some-pissed-off at me!! ggrrrr!!!
   
5. So, I kinda liked that look -- it tied things in some more -- off to add more swirls with the rhinestones -- really like that!!
   

The Inside!!

1. More Paint!! I wanted a 2 tone look -- so, I put on the pink "line" -- loved that!
   
2. The black when on kinda grey -- not sure I would use that same paint next time. But, because of that, I had to add more layers of both colors. Kinda pretty looking!
   
3. I altered the frame with some paint, and glued frame to the piece of fabric I wanted to highlight (thank goodness for that Aleene's thick and tacky fabric glue -- OMG I would have been lost without it!!)
   
4. I added some rhinestones in the wee holes, again, more glue!!!
   
5. I chose to put it on a nice angle so more of the pink would show through. And, more rhinestones!!
   

So, pretty much, this is it. I have been debating to put some more items on the front - specially where the ruffles don't match up - but That'll be another project!! (I have the idea in mind already!)

Thank you for seeing this month's post!! I really enjoyed making this and think that any "modern" chick would love something like this.

My give-away person from last month has yet to contact me --

The random number was #7 - and going down my list, it goes to Stephanie, from - Stephanie's Blog -- I do hope she looks back here so she can send me her color choice. I can't wait to see what she picks! :)

If you could please email what you would like, I'll happily get this off to you :)

Happy Blogging Ladies!!!

This blog hop will run from today, August 28th until August 31st. We will be drawing for winners on September 1st on the Lovebug blog Follow along in our blog hop! Your next stop is Tania http://somethingtoscrapabout.blogspot.com/