{Personalized Frozen-Inspired Halloween Treat Bags}

Hey, y'all!  My adorable nieces had birthdays recently.  They, like most other little girls their ages, are Frozen obsessed, so this weekend they had a joint Frozen-themed party.  They dressed up as Anna and Elsa, and their mom created themed games and snacks.  Knowing in advance that they were going to be having a Frozen party, I bought them lots of Frozen goodies.  I realized this weekend that I needed some type of gift bag to hold the goodies.  I had some small canvas tote bags already, so I decided to whip up some Frozen-inspired gift bags that could double as their Halloween treat bags since they're going to be Anna and Elsa for Halloween too.  I used my Silhouette to personalize the bags, and I love how they turned out!

I started the project with two canvas bags that I bought in a pack of four from Hobby Lobby.

Each bag cost about $2, which is definitely a great price.

I used my Silhouette to cut two stencils from vinyl.  I used the font Maratre.  I typed each of my nieces' names, welded the letters together, and offset them to make the font thicker.  For Londyn's Elsa bag, I used the cut tool to remove the "o" from the name.  I inserted a snowflake in its place and welded it to the name.  For Laney's Anna bag, I used Flourish 1018, a moroccan flower, and circles to  create a design mimicking the front of Anna's dress.  (The design may look like it has more components than those three shapes, but I cut the flourish and used pieces of it in parts of the design.)  Once I cut the design from the vinyl, I weeded it to prepare for stenciling.

I covered the vinyl design with lined transfer paper and removed the backing to ready it for the front of the bag.

I then transferred the design to the bag.

Once the vinyl stencil was on the bag, I put blue painters tape around any places where I thought I wouldn't have enough room to apply paint to the design without getting any on the bag.  This may seem a little crazy, but I would much rather use inexpensive painters tape than extra vinyl for this purpose.  (Also, you may want to put a piece of cardboard inside the bag.  I didn't because I knew from experience that I wouldn't use enough paint to seep through the front of the bag onto the back.)

Since the bag won't be washed like clothing, I used regular paint to stencil.  I specifically used Martha Stewart brand pearlescent paint and glitter paint on Londyn's bag.  I used regular acrylic paint on Laney's bag, with the Martha Stewart glitter paint over a couple of small portions of the design.  I used a round stencil brush to apply the paint.  If you use this type of brush, carefully unload your paintbrush of excess paint, and then apply your paint in a pouncing motion, you will get a really nice stenciled image.  I let the paint dry, and my gift bags/treat bags were finished.

I packaged Londyn and Laney's gifts in the bags, and they loved them.  I had the girls pose with the bags in front of the Frozen backdrop that I used as a photo booth for the party guests.  Let's just say that their personalities REALLY shined through.

Londyn looked so much like Elsa!  She posed perfectly for me.

Laney?  She was as cute as a button as Anna, but her silliness was on full display when I was trying to take her picture.  (This pic is a perfect example of why my husband and I call her Laney-Monster.)

I tried to get a pic of the two princesses together.  Since Laney was in full Laney-Monster mode, this is the best I could do.  I actually really like the picture though because it shows both of the girls' personalities.  I'm really glad that I was able to add a personalized, crafty element to their gifts with these treat bags, and I hope that they enjoy using them when they go trick-or-treating.  They definitely won't have to worry about getting their treat bags mixed up with someone else's!