Back to School

Sorry I have been MIA lately, it's been BEYOND crazy around here!  The house is about 2 weeks (fingers crossed) from being completed - which means massive amounts of finishing touches and projects for me!  Also, since we didn't quite make it in before school starts, I will be commuting 45 minutes each way to my daughter's school every day.  Joy.  Anyhow, I don't promise much in the coming weeks, but once we are moved in and the Crap Room is filled with all of my crafty crap, it's on.  Here's a quick one I had to throw in because it's easy and cute :)

I  bought these super-cute Pottery Barn Kids backpacks and lunchboxes at DownEast Home during their tent sale this summer for really really cheap.  I mean REALLY cheap.  The lunchboxes were $1.49 and the backpacks were $3 - $5.  Seriously.  I couldn't NOT buy them.

The only problem is that, well, these aren't my kids' names.  Not even close. Well, I bought them in July, left them in the shopping bag, and tossed them in the garage where I sort-of forgot about them.  Until last night, when I realized school was starting in a few days and they still had the wrong names on them.  With all the chaos lately, I decided to not bother picking out the stitching (not sure if it works, but I have heard you can), and just go for a quick easy cover-up.

Here they are, all labeled (with the correct names) and cute!

 Since I was throwing them together late at night and in a hurry, I forgot to take step-by-step photos, but here's the run-down (they were easy!).  I cut pieces of white fabric (I used a cotton-twill, or you could use a canvas, you want it to be thicker fabric to cover up the monogram behind it) just large enough to cover the names behind them.  I zig-zag stitched the edges of the fabric (I don't own a serger yet, but if you do, that would be easier and look better :).  Then, using THIS lady's instructions (see the link on the right side of her blog to download directions), I cut heat transfer vinyl (purchased from HERE - I don't have the color names that I used, they were scraps from my vinyl stash) with my cricut using the Plantin Schoolbook font (I sized each one on my Gypsy so that they would fit perfectly on the fabric tags), then I weeded out the extra vinyl around the letters, and ironed it onto my fabric 'tags'.  For the girls I wanted to frill it up a bit, so I cut felt butterflies using THIS die on my cuttlebug.  I then stacked the butterflies (they are the same size, I just pinched the top one in the middle before I glued it on to show the accent color behind it).  I then attached them to the nametag with fabri-tac.  Finally, I lined each nametag with fabri-tac and glued them right over the top of the monograms.  See, told ya it was easy.  You could also use THIS freezer paper stencil method for the lettering if you don't have or want to buy heat transfer vinyl (but I LOVE the vinyl!). 

 Finished product

 Don't look TOO close, I didn't do a very good job zig-zagging the tags, but hey, it was late and I was just trying to get it done :).  I also cut and zig-zagged blank tags of the same size to glue on the backside of each tag to cover up the back part of the embroidered monogram. Not really necessary, but I didn't want to see the old names when I opened up the zippered part of the bag either.  There you go, cute monogrammed backpacks and matching lunchboxes for super-cheap! :)

DISCLAIMER:  I promise my future tutorials will be easier to follow with step-by-step instructions, this one is a little rough :)