Painted and Doodled Canvas Totes

The plain canvas tote. A perfect surface for painting and doodling using Jacquard's Lumiere, Neopaque and Tee Juice Markers. Big totes, perfect for shopping are cropping up everywhere as an alternative to those plastic monsters. You can buy them anywhere and everywhere, but why not have a ball customizing your own. Here are two ideas...

Start with a plain canvas tote that can be purchased virtually anywhere, including Joanns, Michaels or Hobby Lobby. I like these from Eco-bags since they are softer in texture and seem extremely well made. I chose black because I am going to experiment with dry brushing Neopaque and Lumiere paints on the top to add an interesting texture and then doodle over the paint with Tee Juice Markers.

I started with a coat of Lumiere in Pewter, dry brushing back and forth to create a nice texture. My goal is to create a light coat of texture on both sides, but to also let some of the black show through.

Next I added a dry brushed coat of Neopaque in White. I brushed horizontally as well as vertically to create an interesting background for doodling.

Now its time to doodle...

To start the process of a large doodle surface, I usually begin with a central motif and add to the motif going outward. For a more detailed evolution of a doodled surface see this post on a Doodled T shirt with Tee Juice markers.

Here is the final result...

Remember your tote will stand out more if you do both sides. I discovered that the tee juice markers work very well on top of the painted surface. I am going to try this with a plain cotton t shirt next.

For my second tote, I painted the background Neopaque Turquoise and White and also added some Metallic Silver Lumiere to add that sparkle factor. I chose a simple doodling technique for this tote, I used a fine point Tee juice marker and faked script words on the white parts, where it would show up. To do this, start with a recognizable letter in caps and then finish the word with indecipherable scribbles.

Further embellish your tote by adding die cut hearts cut from tossed away sweaters. Mine were cut from an old ribbed turtleneck.

To embellish the heart centers, I added Flower Centers in Dynasty Ivory by Prima Marketing. These can be purchased from Scrapbook.com and sewn on the hearts.