DIY Holiday Reusable Bag And A Giveaway!

I’m sort of feeling like Santa Claus with all of these giveaways lately.

But more on that in a bit.

This time of year as I start slowly decorating my house, I also start thinking about gift ideas.

Besides the big gifts, I always like giving handmade gifts as well.

Every year I make homemade chocolate fudge and cookies.

My Mother in law had a delicious fudge recipe, and her cookies were out of this world!

Each year I make her fudge and give it away as gifts to my family and friends.

Yeah, I know I don’t eat any of that anymore, but I am still going to give it away as gifts since my friends and family enjoy sweet treats.

This year along with there sweet treats I thought I would make a few gift bags, using a reusable tote bag.

These are very simple to make.

I found my bags at a thrift shop, for 1.oo each.

You can find these at Hobby Lobby too.

I was trying to decide which printable to use.

Both of these were found at The Graphics Fairy.

For this bag, I decided to use the Santa face.

It looks like it was taken out of a coloring book.

After I cut out my Santa face, I applied my Heirloom Traditions Decoupage and Transfer Gel to my Santa face.

Then carefully flipped it over and applied it to my bag.

I also found Merry Christmas, I cut that out, applied the gel, and then placed it on my bag.

I let this fully dry, but for some reason my words did not adhere.

Most likely because I didn’t add enough gel.

I spritzed my graphic with a water bottle, then with a soft rag in a circular motion, I started working on my graphic.

And slowly the top layer of paper came off.

Next I took my Aurora Gels and applied them to my Santa face.

I wanted it to look like a watercolor.

I love, love, love these gels!

There are so many fun projects to do with these!

And you use very little so it lasts a long time.

I recently shared how I used Aurora gel on my painted window table.

You can see that HERE.

I added just a touch of water to my gels.

I also mixed two colors to give it a pinkish look.

The gel colors used were Pearl Jam and Cherry Bomb.

You can see I have a little oopsie, but no big deal.

I’ll fix that in a bit.

On the fur I used Pearl Jam, then sprinkled white German glass glitter on top.

I added color to Santa’s nose and cheeks, using the same color combo as the hat.

For the words I took a pencil and wrote Merry Christmas, then traced the letters with Lucky Charms gel.

You can see that Santa’s beard has a small tear.

No biggie, I never care about perfection.

So how easy was this!

After I completed this I thought my vintage stamps could have been used to spell Merry Christmas.

Okay, so on the next bag I make, that’s what I will do.

These bags are a great way to give a gift, because the bag is also a gift.

I think these are so much nicer than those paper bags, and they are reusable.

This is a great way to give a hostess gift as well.

This bag cannot be washed, so make sure you tuck instructions inside the gift explaining that it needs to be spot cleaned only.

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So speaking of gift ideas, I have the perfect gift idea for someone that loves jewelry and vintage style jewelry.

I am super excited to offer this to you!!

Let me just say first, that I love wearing vintage jewelry, or pieces that are made from vintage jewelry.

It’s no secret that I wear mine every single day.
I don’t think you need to get all dressed up just to wear pretty jewelry.

My favorite pieces of course have a little bling.

So even when I am out shopping in my blue jeans, I am wearing something pretty around my neck or my wrist.

Lucy from Bel Monili is offering a giveaway!

One winner will be chosen for a $35.00 credit gift (gift card/code) to be used in Lucy’s store!

This giveaway ends on November 22nd 2015 at Midnight CT.

This giveaway is open to US residents only, over 18.

Here’s a peek at a few of Bel Monili’s beautiful handmade pieces.

But click on that link to see all the other beautiful pieces available.

Visit Bel Monili HERE.

**Here’s what you need to do to enter the giveaway.**

1. You must follow Bel Monili on Facebook
2. You must follow Bel Monili on Instagram
3. You must add Bel Monili to your favorites on Etsy

 ** Make sure to leave a comment for each telling me that you followed Bel Monili on each**

One winner will be chosen at random and will have 48 hours to respond.

If the chosen winner does not respond within 48 hours, another will be chosen.