I’m Heather from A Couple of Craft Addicts. I’m a wife to a wonderful husband and mommy to a sassy two year old girl. My dear friend Jessica and I enjoy sharing kids crafts, recipes, sewing tips, and a variety of fun DIY projects on our blog.
I was amazed by Rebecca when I met her at Creative Estates earlier this year. She is incredibly sweet and ultra talented! I love that she is so passionate about helping children grow their creativity! I’m excited she asked me to participate this week!
Although my two year old daughter isn’t going to school quite yet, I have been wanting to purchase a backpack for her to tote around all of her craft supplies for sleepovers at her grandma’s house. I’m sure my mother in law has plenty of crayons and fun toys but my daughter always wants to bring her own stash of supplies when she goes to visit.
I recently discovered the big price tag on most cute backpacks. Instead of spending a lot, I decided to buy something simple along with some school supplies to make a fun matching set. This would be a perfect project to avoid spending your entire school supplies budget on a backpack!
I had so much fun transforming these boring supplies into a fun school set!
I started with some basic school supplies purchased from the drug store – $5 backpack, mechanical pencils, 3 ring binder, composition notebook, and pencil carrying case.
I started by prepping the backpack for the makeover. I used a seam ripper to carefully remove the brand tag. Then I cut off all the zipper pulls. I initially planned on using my
Cricut to make a fabric initial applique. Instead I found a font online and simply traced my daughter’s initial onto
Heat n’ Bond. You don’t need a cutting machine to applique!
I simply ironed the Heat n’ Bond initial to patterned fabric, cut it out, and then ironed the applique to the backpack. Be careful when ironing on the backpack (a low heat setting is suggested).
I used my sewing machine to stitch around the initial. This step is not necessary but I didn’t really like how the black in the fabric blended with the backpack. Purple thread helped make the initial stand out against the black. To finish the backpack I tied coordinating fabric to the zippers.
The mechanical pencils were fun to embellish! I removed the top of the pencil and then applied a thin layer of Mod Podge to the entire pencil. I wrapped a strip of fabric around the pencil and then sealed the fabric with another layer of Mod Podge. I only made two pencils but I’m sure older kids could use an entire pack for the school year!
The composition notebook received a makeover too. I used Mod Podge and fabric to make the cover pretty!
I used the same technique for the pencil carrying case. Mod Podge is awesome!
I didn’t worry about cutting the fabric to fit over the snap until I had already fitted the fabric on the case. It was much easier than I anticipated. Once the initial layer of Mod Podge had been applied, I used an exacto knife to carefully cut the fabric away from the snap.
My daughter is going to be so excited to pack her new backpack for her next sleepover at Grandma’s house!
Thanks again to Freckles Crafts for including me this week!
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What a great way to dress up school supplies!! Everything is so cute and coordinated! I love it!!
Thanks for your comments Bev! I love Heather’s school supply set. It turned out so cute!
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