Jazzing Up A Purse

I bought a purse for Spring and Summer a little while ago at Target (I am not a high-end gal). It was a great size and the color seemed very Spring-like to me. But it was just a little plain for my tastes. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted and I sketched out a couple of ideas.

I went with a Wizard of Oz theme, which may not surprise some of you as it's my favorite movie. I knew I wanted the witch's cool striped legs and ruby slippers (this is the movie version...the book version uses silver slippers but the director wanted to take advantage of the new Technicolor technology so they switched them to ruby). And this is how it turned out.

Obviously I wasn't going for realism, more of a quirky/kid's version. I love Glinda and this quote is a good one, especially because of Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch's) look afterward. 

I used some paint markers to make it (different manufacturers since it was from my stash) and the yellow one kinda died. It had paint and the paint came out, but in globs and whenever it wanted. So I just globbed it onto paper and used the marker part to pick it up and put on the purse. The bright pink is actually a chalk marker. 

Since the purse has a slight pebbled texture, it wasn't perfect but it was fun to make and I like that I finally got brave enough to try this project. Obviously, a canvas bag would be easier to work with, using fabric paints, but I thought I'd give it a go on the fake leather. Of course, I had to add some Stickles in Xmas Red to the shoes!

If you're interested in painting a bag, you can look into the materials you want to use. They have a leather paint for fake and real leather that might be worth a look. Also, I didn't seal this, because I'm not too hard on my purses. But you could certainly spray it with some sealer to save it.

So that's my experiment. I might try stamping with Staz-on ink for the next try. And then color in with paint markers or permanent or alcohol inks. Stay tuned!

Happy Saturday!

Chark