Bag + Paint = Happy

I'm heading out to Chicago today for CREATE.  Looking forward to teaching and being a student and hoping that the supplies I shipped arrive before I do!  After Chicago, I'm headed straight to Cleveland to tape two episodes of Quilting Arts TV.  All told, I'm going to be away for a long eight days.  But I have blog posts planned aplenty.  And if I have the time, I'll pop in to let you know how it's all going.  Comments come straight into my e-mail inbox, so if you have questions, I'll do my best to get to them as soon as possible!  See you soon!

Each year my theatre company holds an annual weekend retreat.  Here is a photo of all of us at the retreat:

Each year I make a present for each of the company members.  I've done t-shirts, jewelry, mugs, framed scrapbook pages, and this year I made bags.  Everyone in NYC can always use another bag!

I bought some plain bags at Michaels.  They didn't have enough in any of the styles, so I ended up mixing two different kinds of bags - a tote bag and a hobo bag.

I painted one side with a pattern...

...and stamped the other side with "Milk Can Theatre Company."

The stamping took about as long as the painting!  Made me wish for a yudu.  But I had a lot of fun nonetheless.  I sat in my Mom's kitchen painting away.

I tried to match the painting to each person's style and personality.  Take a closer look:













I used acrylic paint, gesso, and clear coated everything with a layer of matte multi medium!

Thanks for stopping by!