Angry Birds Totes

Max’s birthday party is next week, and what with Crochetvolution coming out this week – you went to see it, right? – I’m a little underprepared. In fact, according to my pinspiration board (you like that?) I have about seven cakes to make, eight games to put together, ten party favors to craft and a wide variety of things to glue bird faces to. Hah.

First up in the glued faces department, tote bags!

Inspiration pinned here.

I found these tote bags for a dollar apiece. They had very, very small ones (4 or 5 inches square) at three for a dollar, but that wouldn’t hold some of the favors I’m putting together, so big ones it was. We’re inviting four boys this year, plus Max and Charlie, so everything we make has to be in multiples of 6.

Also, believe me, green was not my first choice, but it was that or pink, and I thought my chances of convincing the boys that pig bags were cool was higher than the same thing for pink bags.

So, to make these bags you will need:

• fabric totes
• some paper
• the biggest googly eyes you can find
• felt in light green (for the pigs) or black and orange (for the red bird)
• hot glue gun
• sharpie marker

First, take your paper and make a template for whatever pieces you will be cutting out. You will save yourself a lot of time and trouble. My first few tries were nothing like what I wanted, but fortunately they were cut out of paper and not my felt, so it was a simple matter to try a few more times. Here’s what I ended up with:

Then trace it, cut it out, the works. Don’t forget to flip your pattern pieces over so that any writing that doesn’t get snipped off will be invisible from the front. Pro tip:

White crayons show up beautifully on black felt. They will, however, accumulate fibers and quickly stop writing, so you need to either clean or sharpen the writing surface frequently.

Once you have all your pieces cut out, arrange them to your liking, glue them on, and draw details with the Sharpie.

All I had to buy for these was the bags themselves, the eyes, and two sheets of felt, so these come out to $1.25 apiece. Not bad for something that the kids love! Now all I have to worry about is what will go in them.