Stenciled Canvas Purse by Judi Kauffman

Time for a Facelift: Stenciled Canvas Purse

By Judi Kauffman for StencilGirl Products

After serving me faithfully for many years, my sturdy old leather-trimmed canvas sidekick was sorely in need of a facelift. The fabric had faded and there were all sorts of stains, but the design and convenient pockets made it too good to toss out!

Here’s how it looked when I started:

And here it is, transformed with stencils and paint:

It retains some of the original khaki color and is by no means a fancy, perfect purse – even with the facelift, but it will serve me well as a bag to take to workshops (who cares if I get more paint or stains!) and on errands (Costco, here I come…).

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Protect hardware, strap, and leather edges with masking or painter’s tape.

2. Randomly brush on acrylic paint in two colors, making sure to leave some of the surface of the canvas visible. Allow to dry. Shown: Aqua and black.

3. Using a stencil brush, stencil allover patterns on top of the brushed-on paint with metallic paints in two or more colors plus more black. Use Woodcut Blossoms Background Inverted for the inside of the flap, the outside front of the flap, the sides and the inside front. Shown: Dark and bright copper, dark gold, black.

4. Use the same paints and Ladders for the back of the purse, allowing the two patterns to merge. The pattern from the front flap extends onto the back just a bit.

YOUR TURN

Start with a leather purse or one made from softer fabrics and use the appropriate paints and medium for the surface you’ve selected. This bag was stiff to start with so I used acrylic paints straight out of the bottle, no fabric medium.

SUPPLIES

StencilGirl Products –

Woodcut Blossoms Background Inverted 9 x 12 by Margaret Peot

Ladders 9 x 12 by Carolyn Dube

Other –

Canvas (or other) purse in need of a facelift

1” Paintbrush
Stencil brush

Americana Acrylics in colors shown or of choice (DecoArt)