Thursday, August 26, 2010

Three Dollar Thursday

I thought I would start a regular post named Three Dollar Thursdays.
I will feature crafts that cost $3 or less tp complete.
  
I got a lot of nice comments on a few of my posts about crafts that cost about $3 or less so I've been thinking about other crafts that I can showcase that cost $3 or less.

Most of the crafts I show are usually fairly inexpensive but the ones I'm most proud of are the jewelry holder I talked about here, the $3 kitchen wall art I showed here and the covered photo albums I showed here.



 
On to my first official $3 Thursday craft.   I'll show you a reusable bag makeover.
I really try to use reusable bags but I know I can do better and can probably use a few more bags.
I sometimes don't immediately empty bags when I use them so the more bags I have the more that should be in the car at any given time for me to use.

This is what I started with, a cream reusable bag I bought from Walgreen's.
Walgreen's had a coupon this week for two bags for $1 so I purchased two bags to makeover.

 

I thought of possibly using some leather from one of the leather jackets I've found lately but in the end decided I wanted something lighter.

I decided to use this black and white floral print fabric I picked up at JoAnn's last month.


I paid $1.29 a yard.  Yep, that's right, $1.29 a yard.
Well technically I only paid $.64 (sixty-four cents) a yard for the piece I used.  I only used about 8 inches so really my fabric cost me about sixteen cents for two bags!

How did I get a yard of fabric for sixty-four cents??

I was at  JoAnn's one day I saw a display that said 90% off fabric.
I zoned in on it right away even thought I really wasn't looking for fabric.
The regular price was $12.99 a yard so I thought I would get a couple yards and maybe attempt to make of of those fabric flowers that are popping up everywhere in blogland.

When I went to get it cut I realized that there was a small piece of about a yard that was already cut. 
The gal at the cutting table asked if I wanted that piece at 1/2 off.
She said it would be 1/2 off of the sale price.
What???

I asked if that was right as it was already 90% off and she said yep,
it would be half of the $1.29 yard sale price.
Sold.
Consider it mine.

I thought about getting some of the other fabrics that were 90% off but I really didn't like them and didn't even need the fabric that I was buying.  :)

OK, back to my $3 craft.

I decided I wanted a big floral circle to cover the Walgreen's logo.
I had four logos to cover so I folded the fabric so it was four layer thick and I traced a couple different round items.


I made rough circles, I didn't care if they weren't perfect. 
I ended up cutting four different size circles.

I cut eight of the largest circle, four of the next circle and eight of the smallest two circles.
Here they are all stacked up.
The largest circle is about 7-8", the smallest one is about 2".


I gathered some fabric glue and some pearl brads I thought would tie the black and white floral print in with the ivory color of the bag.


I decided I didn't really like the pearl brad as the center of the flower so I looked in my supplies and decided to add a black flower to the center.  The black flower was about the same size as my smallest fabric circle so I decided not to use the smallest circles I had cut out.


Much better, the black flower is just what it needed.
I punched a hole in the center of the fabric circles and put the pearl brad through the black flower and then through all the layers of fabric circles.

 This is my completed circle flower.


I started a large spiral of glue over the Walgreen's logo.
I didn't want to completely glue down my fabric, I had about a 5" circle of glue.

I put the circles on the glue and then put a little bit of glue between the two large circles.
I thought they might flop down a bit, that's why I put a little glue between the two large ones.
I figured the smaller circles weren't big enough to flop down much so I didn't glue them.


Petty simple, here is one side all done.


I wanted to finish the other side right away so I pulled out the insert that was in the bottom of the bag and kept it inside the bag in case any of the glue would seep into the inside of the bag.
It didn't appear to be doing this but better safe than sorry.

I was able to fold the bottom of the bag so I could get a flat surface to attach the fabric circles to the opposite side of the bag.


I did the same thing for the other bag and ended up with this as my finished bags.


Close up of my circle flower.
 I'm sure my fabric will fray, and I'm OK with that.
I think I'll like them better the more tattered they get.


The two fabric embellished bags took less than 10 minutes to complete.


I might have to see if I can pick up a few more bags to embellish this week.
They might make great gift bags.


Now if I can just remember to use my reusable bags a bit more often....

Thanks for checking out my first official Three Dollar Thursday craft.

June

3 comments:

  1. I like it, thanks for sharing! I have TONS of bags, but most of them, I started looking right after reading your post, have enormous logos. I'll have to think of something else:)

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  2. Cute idea - I am going to make some of those large flowers with some of my scraps !!!

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  3. I love this idea! I just found your blog over at My Shabby Chateau and thought I'd check you out. I love everything that I've seen and I'm now your newest follower! I'm very impressed with all these $3 Thursday crafts! You are very talented and inventive. I've seen a lot of things to inspire me here!

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