Monday, September 21, 2009

A new fall tea tote


A tote bag is a very important accessory to me, since I am often transporting various papers, notepads and magazines back and forth to the office. Yesterday, I made a new one by transferring images of some vintage tea-themed graphics onto the three pockets of a simple canvas tote from Hobby Lobby. (And I apologize for the crummy photo quality! It was nighttime when I finished up, so the lighting was not what I would normally hope for!)

This idea came to me after a recent antiquing excursion with my mom where I came across "A Source Book of Antiques and Jewelry Designs" by Clarence P. Hornung (1989). It is simply packed with vintage graphics, including quite a few old tea sets, teapots, tea strainers, tea balls and more, all, according to the blurb on the jacket, "carefully arranged for easy reference and use." I had to experiment with the sizes a bit after scanning the images I selected into the computer, but eventually I got them the size I wanted.

After selecting images of sugar tongs, a teapot and a tea strainer, I printed the three on a sheet of transfer paper. I was just about to put the paper in the printer when I realized I'd forgotten to reverse the images! Yikes!

Here you can see the sugar tongs image as I'm about to iron it on the fabric.

I knew the images on thick cotton canvas wouldn't be as crisp as on a thinner fabric, but I was going for "effect" with this tote bag, and I think it came out pretty well. Here's a close-up of the ironed-on teapot transfer.

And the fun thing is, I now have lots of "experimental" paper printouts I can use for other crafts, such as cardmaking or decoupage.

13 comments:

  1. Your tea tote looks great! I'd like to have that book - all those tea images would be fun to play with.

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  2. Love the tote and the book!
    Blessings,
    Donna

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  3. What a fun idea! I have run fabric through my printer, but the size of the fabric has to be 8 1/2" X 11". Those are great graphics. Love the bag too.

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  4. Very nice! I always keep a couple of tote bags under the car seat, for when I forget to bring them to the grocery store. Tho this one is too pretty to hide!

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  5. Wonderful idea..that is a great looking tote!This would make a great project for me and my granddaughter to do together, and give her a place to store her "linens"...she likes to pick through my fabrics to make blankets and pillow cases for her Webkinz (stuffed animals). Thanks for sharing!

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  6. That is fun. These days there's often the option of uploading images to a website that'll print those for you but I also like knowing how to do it yourself. --Spirituality of Tea

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  7. Good for you, that is one cool tote!

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  8. very creative.....my photo on canvas business may benefit from this blog.

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  9. I love the tea strainers with prongs - we sell one like that! A man told meonce he had his grandmother's but never knew what it was until he saw one in my store in a teapot!

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