10 Cute Ways to Decorate a Plain Tote Bag

Do you have a bunch of old tote bags in your stash, like I do? So many events give out free canvas totes right now, and I can’t resist them. Some of them already have awesome art on them, but for plain old totes, they could use an upgrade for spring. Here are some cute ways to embellish a plain tote bag from your stash.

1.    Photo Transfer – Transfer any image you want – a photo, a magazine image, or a laser-printed photo. Radiant Home Studio used it to make a faux quilted pattern on a plain tote, and it looks amazing.

2.    Bleach Spot It – This is a cool technique that works well on dark fabric. A Beautiful Mess used it on a foot stool, and it would work just as well on a dark tote.

3.    Replace the Handles – Grab your seam ripper, and pull off those boring webbing straps. Replace them with these awesome DIY purse handles from Blue Susan Makes. You can always save those webbing straps for another project.

4.   Magnetic Tote – Cut Out + Keep kind of blew my mind with this one. What a great way to deck out a tote and turn it into an on-the-go activity for when you’re out with your kids!

5.    Monogrammed Doily Tote – Turn a doily into a stencil! This is a simple, genius tute from Under the Sycamore.

6.    Watercolor Popsicle Totes – This free printable from Creature Comforts is meant to be used to make favor bags, but you could totally use them to deck out your favorite tote, too.

7.    Neon Ombre – Give your plain ol’ tote bag a color-dipped look with Madigan Made’s simple instructions.

8.    A Pop of Color – I made this tote from scratch, but since you add the colorful stripes after the fact, you can just pick up the tute at step 6 with any bag in your stash.

9.    Geometric Tote – Momtastic uses freezer paper stencils to create this cool graphic tote bag.

10.    Typographic Tote – This is another simple iron on, and the instructions at How About Orange leave you open to putting whatever saying you want in whatever font and colors you choose on your tote bag.