Beach Towel Tote Tutorial

I've got another beach towel project for you! When I purchased that fabulous zebra beach towel (for cheap) to transform into hand towels, I also bought a few more to create with! I knew that I wanted to come up with some colorful and fun tote bags for the beach and pool this summer!

Thanks to Target these towels were $2.50 and I selected a few different bright colors and patterns.

I started by cutting wide strips of towels.

fyi- cutting up towels can me messy! Don't wear your favorite block yoga pants unless you are ok with getting tons of towel fibers all over them!

I picked blues and greens to pair together and laid them out in the size that I wanted- a front and back for the tote- roughly 11" X 20".

I sewed the strips together.

I used an extra piece of towel for the lining

and for the strips that were sewn into handles.

I sewed the handles on and then sewed the sides and bottom together

The result is a SUPER cute and TOTALLY functional beach bag!

Since I can never make just one of anything I made another bag but for this one I used squares sewn together!

a love note to flowers

Dear Flowers,

I'm so sorry we fell out of touch for a while, it's all my fault- I was distracted and didn't give you the appreciation you deserved. But I'm so glad that we reconnected and ended up falling in love this spring. Everything about you fills me with joy. I promise I won't ever take you for granted again!

love, Alisa

the evolution of an idea

Remember my last post? Well I wasn't kidding about looking for inspiration around me and applying it to my own work! My weekends are often spent dyeing and painting fabric for the week and today I just had to create a few yards of fabric and a purse inspired by my peacock experience at the zoo yesterday. I thought it would be fun to show you what I call "the evolution of an idea" with the hope to you inspire you to go out and look for your own muse! And no this doesn't mean go paint peacock feathers- it means turn the computer off and take a break from surfing websites and blogs for inspiration (thats me using a tough love approach) and go search for the things that make you swoon, that give you butterflies or goosebumps, make your heart skip a beat or simply excite you.

Regardless of the medium that you create in (drawing, painting, scrapbooking, art journaling, photography, quilting, sewing, home decorating, cooking....) challenge yourself to search for unique inspiration- it will spark fresh ideas and bring authenticity to everything you create!

Out of the 250 photos that I took of the peacocks yesterday, this one was my favorite. I really liked the blurry bright green leaf that is obscuring the right side of the photo and since what I am often looking for is color inspiration, I was drawn to the electric green paired with the blues and I knew that this photo would be great to loosely base my abstract and whimsical fabric on.

Here is how it all evolves-

today's creative muse

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I give myself creative daily assignments. I find- especially lately with my list of tasks- while creative, they are still tasks- like writing a book, filling orders, teaching classes, etc- that I need to take breaks, get away from my studio, away from the computer, go outside, around town and challenge myself in new and creative ways. The easiest way for me to do this is to take my camera and go looking for color, texture, light, shapes, and things that will spark ideas that I can use in my work. Lately I've been spending a lot of time at the zoo- the San Diego zoo is FABULOUS, only 10 minutes away from home and we have year passes. Lately, I have been going for morning power walks (for my morning exercise) with my camera giving myself assignments (like focus on birds one day and plants another day) searching for inspiration, working on my perspective, practicing photography and finding joy in a little escape.

This morning I found my creative muse- a whole bunch of peacocks that had invaded the flamingo pen. There are peacocks all over the zoo that roam and while you can hear them in the distance and see them strolling around, I have yet to experience a cluster of peacocks showing off their plumage (and aggressively bullying ducks and flamingos). It was quite the inspiring experience- the color or should I say technicolor, the patterns, the click of my camera, the texture, the adrenaline of trying to get a good shot- it was AMAZING- like goosebumps and giddy excitement amazing!