My daughter hates going out with a big purse and I’m always griping at her for putting her phone in her pockets instead of carrying a smaller bag when she’s out with friends. So, I created an iPhone Canvas Shoulder Bag for her as a Valentine’s day gift and as a project for Ann Butler Designs Blog Hop.
I’ve been looking for a great way to alter this Canvas Corp Shoulder Bag, knowing it was the perfect size for a phone, ID, and some pocket change as well as a lip gloss! When I started playing with Ann Butler Designs EZ-De’s Stamp Line and her new collection of ColorBox Crafter’s inks with Clearsnap, I knew this would be a perfect pairing to create a fresh young bag and a great project for the blog hop today with Ann Butler Designs.
To get this project started, I carefully removed the straps by cutting the stitching out with my tiny Westcott scissors because I knew I wanted to turn down the top edge.
I used Ann’s EZ-De’s stamp line 1×3 Rails Set A to create the rectangle pattern on a piece of muslin, stamping with her new ColorBox Crafter’s inks in Sunshine and Tangelo. I doubled the muslin because I wanted more texture and body to the additional piece I was going to add to the bag front. These stamps are so easy to use since they are clear and have no borders, but they are even easier to line up when I’m using my KellyCraft laser level. The level creates an easy to see laser line for me to line up edges of the stamp. Then I just slide it over to add the next stamp for a seamless pattern as the background of hearts. For the border, I used another images and stamped around the mini heart background. I then sewed around the edges so that the bordered image was even on all four sides. I cut just a little outside the sewn edges and frayed the borders of the muslin piece.
I grabbed some Canvas Corp Fringe and some PinkPaislee mistables to embellish the iphone shoulder bag.
I used the same tiny hearts stamp to stamp on a piece of the PinkPaislee mistable ribbon, again using the Ann’s ColorBox Crafter’s Inks in Sunshine. TIP: Taping the muslin to your nonstick craft mat keeps your fabric from shifting while trying to stamp a pattern.
I love these inks. They are so juicy and vibrant in color. I also love that once heat-set, they are permanent, so I did make sure to heat set with heat gun and ironed all the pieces I colored. I smooshed some ink onto my nonstick craft mat and spritzed both the bag and the inks with water. This allowed me to paint the bag to create the ombre fade from light Sunshine to dark Tangelo. With the water and stiff brush, I was able to blend these quite well.
I combined the inks on the mat to color the Canvas Corp Fringe, but then applied the Sunshine directly to the seam binding ribbon. After drying and heat setting these two ribbons, I pinned and sewed these to the original shoulder strap, sewing down both long edges of the seam binding ribbon.
While the sewing machine was out, I sewed the stamped scallop ribbon to the edge of the shoulder bag and turned the edge down creating a cuff at the top. Then I sewed a button-hole on the front of the bag and used a Prima button (colored with the same inks) to sew to inside edge and create a button closure for the shoulder bag. I then sewed the altered strap back on the bag.
How perfect is this adorable little tag “sewn with love’ from BasicGrey?
I did not want to open and re-sew the entire bag, so I used Aleene’s Fabric Fusion to glue the stamped muslin piece to the front of the bag and topped it off with a muslin flower.
Here is the finished bag. A little creativity and color can really transform a simple shoulder bag!
And as you can see, it fits an iPhone perfectly with a little room to spare.
I hope you are inspired to create something out of the norm for Valentines Day and I hope you will play with these new stamps. For more inspiration using EZ-De’s Stamp line and the ColorBox Crafter’s Inks, make sure you check out the rest of the designers participating with Ann Butler Designs Blog Hop!
Ann Butler
Candice Windham
Eileen Hull
