Last fall on the Make It blog, we featured a color block pumpkin Minecraft tote bag for all of your child’s trick-or-treating needs. Since that bag was so much fun to create, I had no problem heading out to the Ann Arbor District Library recently and creating another version of the tote – this time in tribute to the Minecraft Creepers – for a weekend hands-on session at the downtown location.
The kids on hand that afternoon did a great job making their bags, from following my example with exact precision to coming up with their own versions of Creepers. The A2DL does a wonderful job presenting many, many craft workshops for crafters of all ages. Not only are there a lot of crafty events to choose from; they’re open to everyone – not just Ann Arbor residents.
This week’s Make It offers up the template and method we used to create the well-known Creeper; make it just like mine or come up with a whole new look!
Materials
- Cotton tote bag (the size is up to you; heavier canvas bags tend to use more ink from the fabric markers, so keep that in mind)
- Fabric markers (Stained by Sharpie markers work well for a project like this. Also look for larger fabric markers, too, for faster coloring times of larger areas)
- Templates (click two images below for PDFs)
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Scrap card stock
Instructions
1. Start out by trimming a piece of scrap card stock to just smaller than the size of your bag. Slip the paper inside so that your fabric markers don’t accidentally bleed through the tote fabric. Cut out the three template pieces from the two downloadable PDFs (above).
| 2. Place the large square onto the center of your tote and trace all four sides with a pencil. You don’t have to make a dark mark; just enough to use as a guide. |
| 3. Trace the mouth onto the center of your square. After that, use the small square to trace an eye on either side of the mouth. |
| 4. To color in your tote, start by outlining the mouth and eyes. |
| 5. Color in these three areas first. |
| 6. Once the mouth and eyes are colored in, color in the rest of the face. To make the most of fabric markers, work in small sections at a time rather than large scribbles back and forth. |
