Turn Shopping bags into Art!

I love getting really nice shopping bags from stores. But what do I do with them when I get home? I fold them nicely and store them in my closet. 

Last year, as I was printing off a bunch of Kate Spade ads and putting them around my room, I came across an old Coach bag. At the time I was going through a blue and yellow phase (it's still not completely over). 

I figured instead of stashing my bags away, why don't I frame it like I did the Kate Spade ads? And so I did. 

Life: Designed

I was a bit hesitant. I mean... Did I really want to cut up a bag that was in perfect condition? Then the non-hoarder in me kicked in and I cut it up. I suppose you could do this without cutting the bag - if your frame size allows for it. That way if you ever REALLY needed the bag, you could still use it. 

One day I'll switch out the boring black frame for a nicer one but for now, I'm working with what I've got.

I did some searching and found this awesome blog: Unidentified Lifestyle by Maria.
She did a post a while back on this very topic and had this image:

Moth Design

(I hunted around and finally found the original here)
I love everything about this closet! You don't have to break the bank for frames- these are Ikea frames. Or even better- you can use thrift store frames!

This one's pretty cool too- a different take on the norm. The creator gives a detailed tutorial on how to make this.

In My Own Style

Both are great ways to upcycle your shopping bags!

PS Your art doesn't have to advertise name brands. Some bags have really cool designs on them and you can just cut out the store name if you don't want to brag that you shopped at (insert overpriced store name here).

For example, this is the side panel of a bag.

Life: Designed

I'm going to cut it out and frame it as is or I'll throw it into photoshop and change the colour of the furniture pieces (the grey's a bit washed out). Most likely I'll do the latter. 

Source

I just threw this in because I thought it was a pretty clever!




What do you do with your (non plastic) shopping bags?