Free Transfer Printable - Make Your Own Bag or T-Shirt!

After missing last weeks Friday freebie I thought I should make it up to you today with a great one (in fact, keep reading to the end for links to other great free finds).

I recently got my hands on a few meters of lightweight canvas when my incredibly generous mother in law found some going cheap and bought it for me. I was unsure what to do with it at first and knew that, if I put it in my stash, it could sit there for years before it saw the light of day again!

Coincidentally, my daughter started making teenage grumbling noises about needing a bag to take her cooking ingredients to school - carrier bags are 'so not right' according to her. So bags it was!

I went for a simple tote style with a long handle. To be honest, although I can sew, I really have to be in the mood for it and have lots of time and space around me to turn out anything worth talking about. If you are pressed for time or just can't be bothered you can pick up cheap (£1) canvas totes in Hobbycraft.



Hobbycraft Tote for £1

Once I had a few made up I kicked myself for not using applique to decorate them, like I said I'm really up to my eyeballs with a few different projects right now! So I had to come up with something simple, quick and fun to decorate them.

Then it hit me... I had some old t-shirt transfer paper left from an afternoons fun with the kids a few years ago. I've checked and it's still readily available in lots of places but one of the best, and cheapest, I found is at Wilkinsons.



Wilko's transfer paper

I then made some mini donuts and a cup of tea and cranked up the laptop to Photoshop some magic!

I was quite pleased with the results, although I really need to get some better photographs!

Game of Thrones Bag

Geek Chic

I'm sure that all you crafty people are more than capable of designing something perfect for you, but if you fancy one of the above designs then you can get the full size jpegs by clicking on the images below.

 

Of course you might not want to buy a whole pack of paper, or it might be hard to get your hands on a bag so you can always pop along to my Etsy shop and buy them or other designs!

 

And now the observant of you are all hanging on for the other freebie I promised you :) I found this amazingly beautiful word art from artsy-fartsy mama. I think it will look amazing in a fancy little frame and plan on printing one out to hang in my hallway!

 

 

I really recommend you pop over to check out the rest of her blog - it's stunning!

Blog Content Planner

While trying to think of a great and useful Friday Freebie to offer you today I came across lots of interesting and pretty bits and bobs. As I can loose a whole day on Pinterest I thought that maybe I should look through my very helpful blog content planner to see what suggestions I'd scribbled down to help me organise my time.

That's when it dawned on me... most people who read blogs are actually bloggers themselves so maybe they could also use a content planner? I don't know, maybe you are all years ahead of me and do everything on your ipad, or whatever, but I do like the action of scribbling notes down on paper and keeping them in a real live folder. I find it quite relaxing.

I was quite willing to share my very basic planner with you all - and you are most welcome to it - but there are so many out there that lovely people are offering for free that I thought I would just link you up to a few...



Very detailed planner from Organizing Homelife

This first one ticks those two important boxes, it's pretty and functional! Probably aimed more at 'professional' bloggers as there's quite a lot of details in it and filling it out on a daily/weekly basis could be a mammoth task in itself!



Simple planner from Three Little Monkeys Studio

 Something like this Weekly Blog Planner from Three Little Monkeys Studio is great to use as an overall 'To Do' list for the week(s) ahead of you. It's handy to keep things flowing and to help when you sit down in front of that blank screen and flashing curser!



Comprehensive Planer from Living Well Spending Less

I love and adore this huge planner! It has spaces for things all bloggers should be thinking about as well as plans for features, finances, networking and much, much more!  I copied the image and opened it up Photoshop. From there I took each 'page', made it about A5 size and printed out what I needed for each page - so I had more of the weekly sheets than the monthly and just one of the yearly (d'oh).

Oh I guess I should give you a copy of mine too, though it looks a little feeble compared the above greatness!

Keeping it simple!

So, I hope someone out there finds something useful amongst all that? If not then there's loads more out there to find - check out Pinterest for some really pretty ones that don't necessarily show up on search engines ;)

Thanks for reading,

Nikki x

The First Friday Freebie!

Every week we will scour the internet, magazines and even real high street locations (!) for the best freebies we can find. This first one is a real beauty from Skip To My Lou to help welcome in the new year!

So pretty and functional or a wonderful gift and 100% free - just sign into facebook and 'like'  Skip to My Lou's facebook page  - and there's so much on there to like!

Check in again next Friday for another great freebie.

Nik x