Easy Custom Canvas Tote

This might sound dumb, but there is always an excellent way to personalize your shopping trips from any time to any where. You might wonder, ‘Why would I want to do that?’ Well, if you’re anything like me, you smile when you see things you love, and you smile when you see things you’ve done that you’re proud of. Bringing your own, customized tote bag might allow you a bigger grin, and a bigger smile before you begin your shopping expedition.

Everyone loves a good tote bag, and, if you don’t, you don’t know what you’re missing. They’re excellent to carry stuff in, and, if you design each one yourself, you have something nobody else will have. Most of the time, I use mine at the grocery store, or when I’m out shopping. These bags not only give the cashiers a little lift with art when they’re working, but they’re excellent for reducing, reusing, and recycling. 

You don’t have to sew them by hand. 

What you do need, however, is a blank canvas tote, which you can get in bulk either online or at your local art store. You need permanent markers, or markers that won’t run if they get wet. And, you need a little bit of elbow grease and a little imagination. 

Before you start drawing on them, you might want to make a free sketch, planning out what you want each one to look like. I don’t… because I’m lazy, and I know that even if you make a plan, what you make may not actually go as planned. For me, it’s much easier to go in, head first, doodling and doodling until, yay, it’s done!

You can doodle them any way you want, and any way that fits with your own tastes and your own art. I love doing cartoons, but you can draw portraits, patterns, landscapes, realism, or even just quotes you really, really love all over them. What’s fun about this is that it full depends on what you want and how you want it.

If you do a lot of shopping, decorating your own bags can also get you psyched up for a shopping trip. They’re the first thing you grab before you start grabbing goods to go in your cart. Every time a cashier opens them up to fill them, you can say to yourself, ‘Wow, I love my art. I’m so happy I’m reducing my carbon footprint and the amount of trash there is floating in the ocean by using my own bag.’

And, you can think that, by using your own art, customizing something as personal as a shopping bag and allowing yourself to tailor your experience by bringing your own art to a store to use and fill with your purchases. You might not only make your own day, but you might make someone else’s day who’s wondering, “Gee, this is really cool! I wonder where they got these bags!”