DIY Canvas Cactus Bags
Planning parties of any kind can be stressful! I have found that the easiest way to get inspired, and stay organized, is to find a theme. Themes are really great, because it allows you to stay in line with a single idea and keep continuity in your decor. For example!!! My friend decided to have her bachelorette party in Palm Springs, which is the desert, so I went with a desert theme. We were staying in a hotel, so I couldn’t really do much to the walls, so I wanted to have things that I could place around the room that were easy to set up, and easy to take down. I made really pretty DIY Cactus Yarn Art that I placed around the room (tutorial here), and since cacti have those bright pink flowers on them, I made pink tissue paper pom poms to tie on the bed, for a pop of color. Now, keep in mind, we were at a hotel, and I had NO IDEA what the room was going to look like till we got there, so we couldn’t really plan much in terms of how to set things up, so we had to wing it. (We also forgot scissors and tape, but that’s a whole other story).
Since the desert is the destination for Coachella, the music festival that has a Woodstock/hippie vibe to it, I thought that we could add a touch of that in as well. Everyone at Coachella wears floral headbands, so instead of doing matching t-shirts (or something similar), I made adorable DIY Floral headbands. They are adjustable, durable, and require no floral wire (tutorial here). I made white for the bride, and pink for everyone else.
When planning the party with my friend’s sister, we thought that it would be a cute idea to do favors for all of the girls attending. To keep with the desert theme, I bought some plain canvas bags on Amazon, and simply created a watercolor cactus design on each of them. This looks fancier, and more difficult, than it actually is! I just looked up pictures of water color cactus online and found some images for inspiration, then freehanded it! I love adding in a pop of color, and the touch of pink and yellow from the flowers really makes the bags look feminine and pretty. We filled them with things like water, granola bars, sunscreen, chapstick, body scrub, etc., since we were going to be by the pool a lot. You can fill them with anything you like to keep with the theme.
DIY Canvas Cactus BagsSupplies:
paint brush
acrylic craft paint
water
magazines to go inside of each bag to prevent the paint from bleeding onto the other side
Directions:
*Work on a covered surface
*Place a magazine inside the bag to prevent the paint from bleeding through onto the other side
*NOTE; you can use a pencil to lightly draw your design, or trace a design. I simply freehanded each one.
*Dip your paint brush in some water, then in the paint and start your design
*It helps to dip into the water frequently to create the watercolor look, and to help the color spread
*When doing small details like the flowers and the spikes, you don’t want the brush to be very wet
*If it helps, look up some pictures of watercolor cacti as inspiration
*Allow to dry, then fill with whatever gifts you like!
