How To Personalize Canvas Bins With DIY Storage Labels
Please tell me if this has happened to you….
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to raid the playroom and remove toys that had not been played with for a month, any toy that was no longer age appropriate, as well as any broken toys. It took me a good 4 hours to sift through all the toys and I ended up filling two super large trash bags with items to donate and another bag to throwout or recycle. I was super excited that I had reduced our playroom clutter! I was on cloud 9, patting myself on the back, and even raving to my hubs at what I had completed.
After I loaded the donations items into my car, I turned back into the playroom and looked around the room only to see that the room looked UNCHANGED!
WHAT THE??!!!
It was as if nothing had been removed from the room. I organized all of the toys that were left behind, but the room still looked FULL!
I threw my hands up and am waving the white flag for now, but I’ll need to get back in there and remove even more things before December. October, November, and December are my home clean-out days for children’s items. Nugget’s birthday in October and Chi-Chi’s birthday in November bring in loads of new clothes and toys. Then there is Christmas with yet even more clothes and toys.
Organizing the items that are staying is easy with personalized canvas bins. These bins can be customized with any fabric and labeled with any image, number, letter or what have you. Here is how you can revamp new or old canvas bins to help you in your organizing.
First, let me emphasize that this tutorial is best for canvas or fabric bins. Please do NOT try this tutorial on plastic bins…you don’t want to deal with melted plastic.
What You Need:
- Canvas bins
- Iron on fabric adhesive
- Fabric
- Scrap cardboard
- Puffy fabric paint
First, you will need a template. I chose numbers for my canvas labels, but you could easily make a template with an image or letter. Create a template by printing a large image of your desired label on printer paper. Cut out the image and trace onto some scrap cardstock or cardboard (I used a portion of a empty snack box to make mine).
Flip the template and trace out the numbers onto the BACK side of the fabric. You can find scraps of fabric or even those inexpensive small fabric square packs at most fabric stores. Once you have your cut out fabric number, it is time to make it into an applique. Since each bonding brand has different instructions, be sure to follow the directions on the package. Here is what I did for my appliques.
Lay the number onto the your iron on adhesive sheet and snip the adhesive sheet as close to the fabric number as possible. Leave just the smallest bit of the bonding sheet to help adhere the number to the canvas bin later. Iron on the adhesive by placing the iron onto the paper side of the fabric adhesive. Protect your surface and iron by using scrap cloths or old towels on your surface and between the adhesive paper and iron.
Once you have adhesive ironed onto the back of the number, remove the paper backing and use your iron on medium-low heat to adhere the applique onto the bin. This is exactly why you don’t want to use a plastic bin as it would melt. Use puffy paint to trace out the design to add a sewn-on appeal that looks great against the design. Let the puffy paint dry overnight before using your canvas bin.
Repeat the steps to make a collection of canvas bins to store toys, books, blankets, and so much more! Use fabric that coordinates with your room decor and you can use these beauties in any area of your home.
