Thirty-One Review and Giveaway

Hey, friends!  Raise your hand if you'd love to be more organized!  Ooh, ooh, me ME!  One of the areas in our home that drives me Crazy with a capital C is the kitchen.  It's the first room you enter when you walk in the front door, which means it's also become a catch-all.  Mail, coupons, shopping lists, reminder notes, keys, receipts...you name it, it ends up on the kitchen counter.  Not cool.  What to do?  Enter my friend Anne, who happens to be a consultant for Thirty-One.  

I have three Thirty-One bags already; two are the Organizing Utility Tote {I bought myself one and received one as a birthday gift}, and one is the Large Utility Tote, which I got when it was the $10 special of the month last summer!  But I didn't realize that besides their great bags, Thirty-One also has these Hang Up Family Organizers!  They come with five pockets that are just right for all the random things that end up on my counter.  

Stenciled Easter Treat Bags

Ready or not, friends, it's coming!  Easter is just around the corner!  Here in the Artsy House, Little Crafter has been begging to make some holiday crafts.  In fact, if you noticed a huge deluge of pins on his Pinterest board a few days ago, let me assure you that they're really all hand-pinned by the little man!  He made me type "Easter Crafts" in the search bar and then started clicking like crazy.  True story.

Anyway, we didn't have everything we needed on hand to make any of the things he pinned and he decided it was too cold for a trip to the store, so I pulled out some canvas bags I had left from a project last year and let him go to town making these:

Materials:
- canvas bags
- cardstock or newspaper
- fabric paint
- sponge brushes or daubers
- stencils {ours are Martha Stewart}

Step 1: Place some cardstock or newspaper in your bag to prevent paint from going through to the other side.

Step 2: Use fabric paint and a sponge brush or dauber to apply paint to the bag using desired stencils.

That's really all there is to it.  Just make sure you don't put your stencils or your hand down in wet paint, and you're good.  Let it dry completely before filling the bag.

I have to say just for the record that I learned an important lesson while doing this project with Little Crafter. Gone are the days when I design a project and help him to execute it my way.  No, friends, from now on, his projects are truly his projects.  I had a design in mind, but he knew exactly what he wanted, and so I let him go for it.  He came up with both of these designs 100% on his own.  He chose the stencils, where they went, and what colors to use.  Pretty good, huh?  I guess starting him early paid off!

LC also did all the stenciling himself except that I helped with the "Happy Easter."  I held the stencils in place and he did the paint work...which means I ended up with a lovely "crafter's manicure."  Did you know fabric paint doesn't like to come off of skin?  Yeah.  Me neither.

I think they turned out just adorable, and he is beyond thrilled with them.  It's cute to see how proud he is of his handiwork...he wants to show it to everyone, so he's beside himself with excitement that I put it here for, as he says "everyone in the whole wide world" to see.

They're the perfect size for filling with candy and treats or with plastic eggs, which is what's in ours at the moment.  If you like them, I'd love for you to leave a little comment I can read to him...it would make his day!

Hugs & Glitter,