DIY: Painted Shopping Bag

Sometimes I keep shopping bags not because they’re particularly cute but because they could be useful. I thought I could use paint to alter a bag’s appearance to make it a bit more visually interesting (as well as cover up any unwanted design elements).

SUPPLIES

• Paper shopping bag
• Acrylic paint
• Sponge (I used cosmetic sponges) and/or paint brush
• Paint tray (or any piece of plastic; e.g. washed out TV dinner plate or plastic lid)
• Newspaper (or any type of paper to cover your work area)

DIRECTIONS

— 1 —

Squeeze paint onto the paint tray.

— 2 —

Apply the paint with a sponge to the shopping bag. If you’re using multiple paint colors, you may want to wait for the paint to dry before applying other colors. If you’re trying to cover up the original design on the bag, it may take a few coats to cover up effectively. Painted Shopping Bag complete.

I chose a bag that had a centered design that didn’t take up too much room, so it was pretty easy to cover with paint (although I could’ve done some extra coats of paint of red to cover the text up more).

However, if you like aspects of the design that is already on the shopping bag then you can avoid painting over parts of it. I left many sections of this bag untouched. Also, you can water down the paint so the applied paint is more like a wash, allowing the original design to show through.