Put a little {glitter} heart into your valentine packaging

If you have been following our blog for a while, you know that I like to use our fabric bags for favor and holiday packaging. I've been playing around with the concept of adding a little sparkle to our linen and cotton bags for Valentine's Day and came up with a few ideas to share with you.  

These adorable glitter hearts are a simple way to dress up fabric bags. Make the hearts as big as you want ... use one heart like I did or add a few to create a pattern.! Just add a gift tag and you are ready to go! If you are going to use these bags for candy or food products, I recommend using a smaller sized clear candy bag to contain the food before inserting it inside of the fabric bag of your choice. 

I added a single band of glitter to the bottom of the linen and cotton bags pictured above. We were giving out these cute little buttons at the Total Wedding Show a few weeks ago and I thought that something like this would be cute on the bags with the glitter. You could use vintage buttons or brooches for a more vintage look!

Here's how I added the glitter hearts and stripes to the bags: 

1. Gather your supplies: linen/cotton/burlap bags, Martha Stewart decoupage (multi-surface durable glitter finish), Martha Stewart glitter (in colour of your choice), paint brush, painter's tape, large sticker and paper punch (optional).

2. Tape off the area you want to add the glitter using painter's tape.To create a perfect heart, I used a heart shaped paper punch and cut the heart out of a large sticker. Make sure that your tape/sticker is tight to the fabric so that the decoupage does not bleed underneath.

3. Using a paint brush, add decoupage to area that you want to add glitter. While the decoupage is still wet, sprinkle glitter to cover area completely.

4. Immediately remove the tape/sticker and allow to dry for a few hours.

5. When completely dry, add a top coat of decoupage over the glitter to stop the glitter from flaking off. 

The great thing about this technique is that you can do it on glassware as well. I used the heart sticker that I created when making my favor bag to create the heart shape on the glass vase. The only difference with using the Martha Stewart decoupage on glass is that you want add 2 or 3 coats of decoupage over the glitter so that the glassware can be dishwasher safe (after "curing" for 28 days). These glass containers would be nice for flowers, candles or as a candy container for a sweet table!

You can add glitter to burlap as I did with this David Tutera burlap candle holder. I added a vintage brooch to mine to dress up the candle holder. We have one brooch available on line right now and a few more vintage style brooches will be arriving in time for spring/summer weddings. I'll keep posted when they are available!

Here's one more look at my glittered linen favor bags. I attached my vintage brooch to it - I think that this would be lovely as a favor for a bridal shower or wedding.