This tutorial was originally published in January 2012 on my old blog, Four Flights Of Fancy.  All this week I will be adding my most popular DIY’s from Four Flights onto For the Love Of.  I hope you like the new to this space content!

I’ve had some plain canvas totes taking up space in my craft bin for awhile now.  I bought a few of the 3 packs the last time they were on sale at Joann’s and just hadn’t had much inspiration for doing something with them until this past week.  With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought some heart totes would be the perfect little gift to have on hand for friends and cousins or even the kid’s teachers, so I made these in about an hour using the trusty freezer paper method, and instead of cutting out hearts by hand with my xacto knife, I put my heart punch to good use.

Step #1, gather your supplies which are: a roll of freezer paper (found at the grocery store), a plain canvas tote, a large heart hole punch, fabric paint (I always use Tulip because really that’s all Joann’s and Michaels carry), and some paint brushes or sponges.  You’ll also need a pair of scissors of course and a hot iron.

Step #2, cut strips of freezer paper.  For these tote bags I cut 4 strips of paper approximately 3″ wide, but you can really just eyeball it according to the punch.  I am terrible at measuring, and it drives Art insane, who believes in the motto “measure twice, cut once.”  Malarkey, the eyeball it way of measuring hasn’t failed me yet!

Step #3, punch out your hearts, but don’t punch your loved ones heart.  Haha, I’m so funny at 11:30 at night.  4 across fit just perfectly.

Step #4, iron on your strips of freezer paper with a hot iron, making sure to really dig in and get all the little cracks which tend to not want to stick down without some elbow grease.

Step #5 involves a little mixology.  Since Tulip only makes one very basic shade of pink and red, I had to play around a little bit and mix my colors.  But it was fun.  I left one color the true original pink, then I added white to red to get the deepest color, added white to pink to get the 2nd to the lightest shade of pink, and then added pink to white to get the lightest shade.  You can play around with it and just have fun until you find the shades you want to create that ombre effect, there’s no rules here.  Rules are for sissies.  Be fearless.

Step #6 leads you to painting away.  I like these dot sponges best because it really seeps all the paint into the cracks of the canvas, but use whatever you’ve got on hand.

Step #7 well there really is no step number 7, I just needed another picture to complete the pretty foursome just keep painting.

Step #8 let your paint dry for at least an hour and then carefully pull off the freezer paper.  You can set with a hot iron if you wish, but if you’re lazy like me no worries.  And you’re done!

After creating a couple of the heart totes I thought a more sophisticated striped ombre bag would be fun too, so I just grabbed some painters tape and marked out my bag into quarters.

Paint, let dry and then peel off the tape.  You’ve now got yourself a cute grocery tote.  Don’t you feel so proud?  Saving the environment and being chic all at once.  Well done!