I made a few more deli sandwich bags into holiday gift bags. This year I am making multiple patterns instead of having them all the same. Doing the bags this way lets me experiment a little bit more with different techniques to upcycle them. Some of the holiday bags I made have rubberstamping on them, some are paint splattered.
To make the bags shown here you start by painting over the logo with acrylic paint. Another option is to turn the bag inside out to hide the logo. This second technique works well for rubber stamping. It gives you a plain, smooth background to work on.
To add a bit more color to the Christmas tree theme I sprayed ink over the dried acrylic paint allowing it to run down the bag. Keep in mind whether you prefer to have the inked pattern going up or down the completed bag.After the ink is dry your bag is ready for sponge painting. To make it easier, I cut the tree shape from a compressed sponge. Two shades of green acrylic paint add variety to the trees. The different color ornaments are added using a pointed stirrer and again various colors of acrylic paint. Note, the dots take a little while to dry due to the thickness of the paint. The final gift. A wooden snowflake adds to the design. At the time I made these I wanted to use brown twine to tie the bags and no matter how hard I searched the twine was nowhere to be found. Turns out raffia works just fine.The star patterned bag starts the same as mentioned above by painting over the logo. I cut the star from a compressed sponge and stamped the pattern using yellow acrylic paint. If you prefer, different shades of blue also make a nice “wintery” type theme.To make the stars more prominent I outlined them in black, I like the contrast this technique creates. The Dingbats pen works perfectly over the painted surface. No smudges or skipping.
If you do not have deli bags to upcycle you can use regular brown lunch bags. If they are well used the crinkled paper makes an interesting background texture for your designs.
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Oh, and once the holiday gift bags were painted, stuffed and tied off with raffia I finally found the brown twine. Now I get to make another project to use it on.
Have a wonder time celebrating your holidays. I wish you all the very happiest of times.
I am taking a posting break and will begin again in January. Happy crafting.
