DIY Monogrammed Mini Totes for $1

If you’re a Facebook follower, you probably saw that yesterday was my sweet girl’s 5th Birthday.

Good grief, is she cute or what? Sorry, I just love that picture:)

Anyway, her first big girl party is this weekend. And by “Big Girl” I mean the first time we’re having friends of hers over, parents dropping them off and all that good stuff. She’s getting close with some little girls at school that she talks about ALL.THE.TIME, so I figured we should go for it. I mean, you only turn 5 once, right? 😉

So we made a little list of about 6 girls to come over. Combined with my two, there will be 8 girls here. Even Daddy and Noah have to hit the road – no boys allowed;) It’s a Fairy theme. Whenever I have a party, I hit the Dollar Tree to get all my supplies, like utensils, tablecloths, cups, favor things, etc. I wasn’t really even all that sure what I was getting for the favors, but when I saw these hot pink totes, I got a plan.

Per the birthday girl’s request, we’re going to make crowns, decorate wings, and draw pictures. Wouldn’t it be nice for all the girls to go home with a little bag to throw everything in?

Wheels were a-spinnin’.

I picked up 8 of them, one for each girl (yes, I made them for my two also;). I had some stencils at home and white craft paint, so I decided to make some monogrammed mini tote bags for them!

So easy, and took maybe 20 minutes. First, dab some white paint on a foam brush…

Place a stencil on the tote (mine are called ‘Rustic 4 inch Alphabet Letters’ from Hobby Lobby – I use these bad boys to DEATH!)

Once you’ve dabbed the brush all over the inside of the stencil, lift it straight up. It will look a little unfinished, that’s ok.

Take a small brush and just fill it all in. I like to connect the spaces to make it look less stencil-y.

That’s IT! Now each girl has a cute tote bag – perfect for library books, or throw some pjs and a toothbrush in for a sleepover at grandma’s, take to the pool with a towel…whatever! I thought maybe I’d tie each one to the back of a chair with ribbon, kinda like a place card – double duty – I love it!

Since there are only 8 girls, I spent a whopping 8 bucks on this – which is probably less than I’d spend if I bought a bunch of that candy and crap (pardon my language) that us parents tend to throw in those plastic goodie bags, am I right? Yep, I’ve done it too. And it all usually ends up in the trash a couple days later.

The Dollar Tree also sold purple and blue ones, in case you’re wondering;)

Can’t wait to hang with all my fairies on Saturday!