Flower Power Messenger Bag

I picked up a couple plain canvas messenger bags for painting - because wearable art rocks! Working with acrylic inks and fabric paints, I started giving the front flap a little psychedelic color.

By misting the canvas first with water, I could get a nice "bleed" on all my drops of ink. In some areas, I brushed the edges out even further.

After adding and blending a few colors to cover the flap, I let it sit for a couple hours until it was mostly dry, but still a bit damp. Then I randomly paint-stamped a few shapes all over and let it dry overnight. Because the fabric was slightly damp, I was able to stamp some faint "ghost" shapes with transparent fluid acrylic pink and yellow paints that absorbed more into the fabric. I used opaque paints for the green and blue shapes.

Once the flap was completely dry, I was able to iron on my letters to spell "flower power." Now I'm still trying to decide what color I want to paint the rest of the bag - I'm thinking black, so the bright colors on the flap really stand out. So fun!