In Vancouver, the price to purchase a single use plastic bag has recently gone up to 25 cents. Stores are also going more “green” by often saying “spend x amount and we’ll give you a reusable bag for free”. BUT did you know that for a reusable bag to be more eco friendly than a single use plastic bag, it has to be used more than 130 times??
The reusable bag I’m putting in question here is a canvas tote bag. We’ve all seen them and Pinterest is flourishing with aesthetic pictures of reusable bags. Problem is, not all of the canvas tote bags that come our way via store promo match that vibe. They usually have ugly logos on them or just aren’t cute.
So now being the eco friendly queen you are, you’re (maybe) saying to yourself “I want to reuse this bag more than 130 times or else it goes to waste, but it’s just too ugly for me”. Well, worry not because I have a fun solution to saving those ugly bags and turning them into a Pinterest-feed-worthy moment.
All you have to do to rescue those tote bags from those tacky logos are paint over them with acrylic paint. If you go to Michaels, they have a cheap paint aisle where you can buy small bottles of acrylic paint for like 2 dollars (not to be mistaken with the aisle that sells professional-grade acrylic paint, which is much more expensive).
Being the crazy craft lady I am, I bought a variety pack of paint for $12. Just wanted to put that out there incase you might be a crazy craft person as well.
Anyways, the reason for using acrylic paint is because it’s waterproof AND machine washable. And unlike fabric paint (which you could also use for this), its more versatile so you can use it on a bunch of different projects after this one.
You might not be the type of person to be excited about sitting and painting something and maybe you’re not good at painting. 1) I’m not good at painting either, I strategically stick to big simple pictures like cacti or minimal landscapes (check out my Pinterest feed for tote bag design inspo). 2) Sitting down and letting your creative juices flow is super therapeutic and could be fun to do on a night in or as a date idea!
I’ll stop chitchatting now and show you the whole process.
Supplies
- acrylic paint or paint pens
- clean tote bag
- paint brushes
- parchment paper
- painting inspo (check out my Pinterest for this)
Instructions
- Place a layer of parchment paper inside your tote bag. This prevents the sides from sticking together when the paint dries.
- Paint over the logo with your desired colour of paint. I like to use craft smart paint because it’s cheap and does the trick. For lettering, I like to use paint pens. If the logo is huge, I like to start with painting a big rectangle over it so I have a blank canvas to work with. Darker paint will cover the logo up more quickly but a few coats of a white paint will also do the trick.
- Let the paint dry and that’s it! Use like normal and throw in the washing machine to clean if needed.