DIY Custom Painted Tote Bag

Tote bags are extremely easy to customize. Recently a friend of mine left to the UK for her studies and I decided to personalize one for her. Here’s a tutorial for you to make your own!

What you’ll need :
1) Plain Tote bag
2) Fabric Paint
3) Foam Sheet (for stamping)
4) Scissors
5) Paint Brush
6) Cardboard
7) Ruler
8) Iron

Prepare your tote bag by placing the cardboard piece in between. This is to ensure that the fabric paint will not seep through the first layer and stain the second fabric layer beneath.
This is the fabric dye that I’m using. I got mine from Vision Art in SS15.

I drew a cross on my foam sheet and cut it out. This will be my stamp.
You can cut any shape you wish. Then, I used my brush to paint all over one side of it.

Tip : I stuck a masking tape behind for me to easily lift the stamp. This is optional.


I wanted something different than a solid black cross, so I brushed different amount of paint on different parts of the cross stamp. If you’re planning to do this, avoid saturating the sides as it might ooze out and ruin the stamp design. You can measure where you’d like your cross to be, but I just eyeballed mine.

I wanted to write my friend’s name in the middle and used two rulers to line the tip of the cross. Then, I eyeballed the length and used a pencil to gently mark out where the letter should be. It might be hard to erase the pencil so try to draw it lighter and only do minimal markings if possible.
Use a thinner paint brush to paint out the letters with your fabric paint.
Once you’re satisfied with your design, set the design by ironing it under a fabric at medium heat.

And you’re done! Happy Tote Bagging!