Make Life Lovely: DIY Painted Drawstring Valentine Bags

I have always had a thing for cute little muslin drawstring bags. I have them in all different sizes, and love coming up with creative ways to use them! They are perfect for party favors or for tucking small gifts inside.

Recently I was able to attend CHA for the first time (my dream come true!), and I was given a sample of muslin and burlap bags from SRM, a company that sells fabric bags, clear containers, and stickers. I wanted to create some little valentine bags, and decided to get creative with some of the fun supplies that I was given from the awesome companies that I met with during the blogger networking party at CHA… more on that later this week! I decided to stick with black, white, gold, and a little bit of red for my bags, but you can use any color and create any designs that you like!

DIY Painted Drawstring Valentine Gift Bags:

You'll Need:

Muslin and/or burlap bags
Paint (I used Plaid Folk Art Chalkboard Paint and gold paint- not pictured)
Paintbrush
Glitter (I used Tulip Fashion Glitter)
Painter's tape
Piece of cardboard (not pictured)

1. Place a piece of cardboard inside the bag that you will be painting, so that the paint won't bleed through to the other side.

Place the painter's tape on one side of your bag to create stripes. Paint the area in between the painter's tape to create stripes on the bag. I used chalkboard paint because I had originally wanted to write names on the outside of the bags on the chalkboard stripes, but then I changed my mind. Let the paint dry completely.

2. Once dry, slowly remove the painter's tape to reveal the painted stripes. I love this part! ;) For the next part, you can choose to draw a heart in the middle of your bag lightly with a pencil freehand (like I did), or trace around a heart shape if you're not quite sure of your drawing skills.

3. Carefully paint in your heart. You have a few options here- you can paint with a metallic gold paint (or any other color) like I did on my first bag.

You can also use an adhesive and glitter, like I did on my second bag with the red heart. Tulip Fashion Glitter worked well, because it is meant to adhere to fabric and the glitter is supposed to stay on after multiple washing. Just follow the directions on the box.

For my third bag I painted the whole thing black, and then painted in the word "love" with gold paint. I LOVE the way this one turned out! Next time if I were to paint the whole thing I would do it on the muslin, not the burlap, because it makes the burlap a little trickier to close at the top, but I just adore this look. It's easier to close the other bags, too, if you leave the top drawstring section unpainted.

Now that I have my cute little bags, I just have to figure out what I'm going to be putting inside them!

For more Valentine's Day projects, check out my free printable pirate Valentines… just add gold chocolate coins!

Or for the man in your life, I share how to open up store bought fortune cookies, take out the old fortunes, print out new romantic fortunes, and put them back inside the cookie and seal it all back up without him having a CLUE! Easy tutorial can be found here.