Art and Sole: Birthday Bag

I recently needed a birthday gift. I love handmade bags, especially these totes that will fold up and tuck into a handbag, ready to whip out when needed. I hadn't painted one in a while, so thought it would be a nice gift to make.

I started by making a calico bag, though you could buy one.

I popped some cardboard inside the bag to protect the back, then I marked out a panel and painted it with White and fabric medium mixed.

All paints are PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk.

Next I added blocks of other colours, all mixed with fabric medium, I used old discontinued colours to try and use them up. Smoked Paprika, Sky, Spanich Mulberry, Jade and Prawn.

I added a little Banana to brighten some areas, then used a brayer to add White. Over this I stamped the text from EDY17 using Plum Archival ink. I also added the hanging beads using Marlin.

Then some stencilling of the circles from PS031 using Jade, plus another layer of White.

I finger painted a little Sky, Smoked Paprika and Banana in places, then used sequin waste to add more stencilling using Spanish Mulberry.

Then another layer of brayered White.

All these layers are very thin, and allow you to build up depth and dimension without obliterating the colours beneath.

I stamped the Cherry Blossom tree from EDY19 twice at each side, using a piece of paper as a mask to make sure the trees were in the right place. The tree stems weren't quite long enough, so I lengthened them just with a piece of plastic and Black paint.

I added dots of Prawn to the trees, and then stamped the dotty circles from EDY17 using Cornflower Archival ink.

Finally I added some lines of black paint and some circles of white with a lid.

That was the background finished, so now to add the border to ground the panel. I used the torn paper edge stencil PS031 and Pea Coat paint, blending the paint inwards with a soft brush.

To embellish the panel I painted some flowers and leaves onto cotton fabric. The frilly flowers from EDY18 are in Bougainvillea, Lilac and Captain Peacock. The Poppy from EDY19 is in Smoked Paprika and Cherry Red. the three stems are done with a variety of greens on each one to add interest.