“I’m not sure if I’ll embellish this art bag.”

Of course I was going to embellish it!

Plus I found a fabulous way to use up my old broken jewelry.

I really love the way it turned out. What do you think?

I usually add some beaded embellishment to the front of my art bags but I’m not sure if I’ll do that to this one; I think I’ll live with it for a few days to see how I feel. And as usual, the design was printed on fabric using my very favorite digital grounds, so it has beautiful depth of color, texture and detail.

Wear Your Art on Your Arm

Magnolias never looked so fragrant …

Poppies are my flower of the moment – simple and uncomplicated …

… and Daisies, well they’re just bright and cheery.

Each art bag is embellished with a small decorative emblem and bead, attached to the bag handle with a gold chain. And as a bonus each art bag comes with it’s own special “Baggie” to keep it free from dust while it’s being stored – a brilliant idea!

More designs will be added shortly as soon as I catch my breath (it’s been a hugely busy week), but in the meantime visit the store for details, ordering and additional photos.

Travel lightly and have a great day!

I’ve used this particular design on other items such as my journals and card holders which you’ll find those items in the store, but I really like the way this design turned out on my art bag and I particularly like the touch of blue; it’s quite unexpected and adds subtle visual interest. I also finished the edges with machine wrapped cording using a blue metallic thread to bring focus the the blue color.

As with my other art bags I put the closure on the back so it doesn’t interfere with the beaded embellishments I add to the front. These bags are functional as well as art and I often take them out shopping with me so having the closure on the bag makes it easy to open and close without anything getting caught up in any dangly beads on the front.

And of course I use those wonderful invisible magnetic snaps so the closure doesn’t damage the surface of the bag.

As I mentioned, I print all my digital art on fabric using digital grounds – I haven’t found anything else that produces such intense and vibrant color when printing on fabric. If you haven’t yet tried digital grounds, give it a try! It’s loads of fun. You can pick up an economical sample pack from DickBlick.com. (This is an affiliate link.)

And of course if you need more inspiration for using digital grounds, I have the perfect solution for that also.

Digital Grounds Sample Set

This is “Daisy” Version 2. I just loved the “Daisy” design and wanted to try it out on a different bag shape so I chose the original (and my personal favorite) art bag shape for version 2. This time though, I used my new printer to print on a large piece of “fabric paper” – approx 12″ x 10″ . The printer did a fabulous job printing on the rough texture, and this is the result …

This is the back. I put the bag closure on the back of the bag using a magnetic snap so that when opening the bag you don’t have to disturb the beautiful bead embellishment on the front.

You can see the beautiful texture that the “fabric paper” creates …

and here …

And this time I also fine tuned the inside pockets so now everything is organized and easy to find.

I’m enjoying making my art bags so much that I’ll soon be offering them for sale on my new Etsy website at ArtyZenTextiles so stop by from time to time and check it out.

PS – I print my designs on fabric using digital grounds. You can find out more about digital grounds here.

This one is a quite large, about 14″ wide x 10″ high and 3″ wide with an open top so this has now become my new shopping bag. And yes, I do get quite a few stares (I’m sure of envy) when I’m out shopping with it.

This time I edged the bag with a machine blanket stitch instead of a satin stitch, and of course some machine wrapped cording to finish it off. I *really* like the way it turned out.

And of course whenever I get anything new I’ve just *got* to test it out. So this weekend I was working on a new art bag and did a couple of comparison prints while I was at it just to demonstrate once again, the amazing results you get when using digital grounds.

This is a new digital art design for my latest art bag. This is the original artwork – front and back.

Then I did a print on an untreated piece of pfd fabric ..

… and the same design printed on a piece of fabric treated with digital grounds.

You should be able to see a noticeable difference in color quality, and also close up you can see a very noticeable difference in detail. The print on the untreated fabric looks very washed out and dull by comparison.

So on to the art bag. This is “Daisy”, a simpler bag design than “Poppy”, but very bright and cheery.

I’ve been asked a number of times about how the art bags are constructed. The design of “Poppy” is a little complicated because it’s shaped with a rounded front and back, but “Daisy” is a much simpler design.

The artwork of course is first printed onto fabric using digital grounds. The pieces are then constructed individually – the artwork fabric is fused to a piece of peltex …

The lining is fused to the other side of the peltex …

The digital art is then sealed with a brush-on sealer to make it water-resistant, and then the edges are satin-stitched all round. Even after using digital grounds and sealing, the art is still very sewable both by hand and machine.

Then all the pieces are assembled flat and stitched together. Depending on the shape, sometimes this is done by hand, sometimes by machine.

And then finally the sides are handstitched into position to form the shape.

For “Daisy” I added a beaded embellishment on the front.

And lengths of machine wrapped cording were plaited to form handles. And finally – Daisy is born.

Pick up your Supplies at DickBlick.com

Find out why I recommend DickBlick.com

Digital Grounds Sample Set

I love this bag! The art bags, as well as being *art*, are also functional and this one hasn’t left my side since I finished it. It’s just big enough to hold my important stuff and I’ve taken it everywhere with me. It’s one of those accessories that just make you feel good, like a favorite piece of jewelry or a favorite dress. You can almost feel spring just around the corner.

Pick up your Supplies at DickBlick.com

Find out why I recommend DickBlick.com

Digital Grounds Sample Set

This is one of my first digital art designs; a photo of some magnolias blended on a gradiant background and overstamped with some handwriting.

And this is the same design printed onto fabric using digital grounds. The size is approx 9″ x 12″ and you can notice that the print is almost an exact color reproduction of the original and it has excellent clarity in the details. Next print though I think I’ll try another coat of digital grounds which will hopefully enhance the color even further.

I used the print for the latest in my “Art Bag Series”. I think I’ve done enough of these bags to qualify it as an ongoing “series”, but I really like the design and it’s a perfect shape and form to showcase these digital art designs so I think I’ll be doing a few more of these before I’m done with the series. The surface of the bag is sealed so it can be used functionally as well as decoratively and I really like the soft colors and the design. Can’t wait to do the next one!

For that particular project, which was a bag, I couldn’t find any handles that I liked, so I made some beaded handles using some lovely glass beads that I had recently picked up at the craft store, and some machine wrapped cording. Making the handles this way allowed me to color coordinate, and the beads also add a little sparkle to the finished bag.

I first made two lengths of machine wrapped cording slightly longer than the length I needed for the handles. You can find instructions on how to make machine wrapped cording here.

Then I threaded some glass beaded onto a strand of craft wire the same length as the cording. I made four of these.

I took two strands of wired beads and one strand of cording …

… and twisted them tightly.

The wire helped to keep the twist shape and the colors coordinated beautifully. I then added a few stitches at the end of each of the handles to secure them in place. It took no more than half an hour to make the handles and they look just great!