Shine Brightly with Sparkle: Make a Mexican Grocery-Tote Wall Light

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Kathy Cano-Murillo, contributor

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A striking wall light can be made from an inexpensive, plastic grocery tote.

Kathy Cano-Murillo

Save the other pieces of bag for another project.

Kathy Cano-Murillo

Have fun highlighting and giving definition to the image with glittery paint!

Kathy Cano-Murillo

A striking wall light can be made from an inexpensive, plastic grocery tote.

Photo: Kathy Cano-Murillo

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Plastic stenciled grocery totes are a must-have when shopping in Mexico. They are cheap, come in all kinds of juicy colors, and sport super-cool icons like Frida Kahlo, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Jose Posada's classic Dia de los Muertos motifs. On my last trip to Cabo San Lucas, I picked up three and knew I had to come up with a clever transformation. One of them I stretched over a large embroidery hoop and hung it in my writing/inspiration corner, and with another...I made this wall light!

There are a couple of secrets to get the right look. The bags are made of plastic screen, so the design disappears once light passes through it. Therefore, you have to outline the image in squeeze paint, and then add some extra color and glitter. It looks fabulous unplugged and even more brilliant lit up!

What You'll Need:
1 large Mexican grocery tote
1 wood frame, 16 inches x 16 inches
1 piece of white art paper, about 14 inches x14 inches
Scissors
Staple gun
Ribbon
Sequin trim
Liquid Fusion adhesive
Hot-glue gun
1 set of mini-lights (50)
Tulip 3D Glitter Fashion Paint, black
Crafty Chica™ Paint Pack™
Crafty Chica™ Chunky Glitters™

1. Cut the handles off the bag, then remove stitches from the sides. Cut along the bottom of the fold. Keep that main piece and set aside the rest of the bag for another project.

Cut up your tote bag so that you preserve the image or design that you want to feature on your wall.

2. Take the cut piece of bag, stretch it over the frame, and staple along the edges. If the piece will not fold over the side, just staple along the front edges. Trim off the excess.

You can center (or not) the bag image as you stretch your cut piece of bag over the frame.

3. Outline the image design with Tulip 3D Glitter Fashion Paint. Let dry.

Have fun highlighting and giving definition to the image with glittery paint!

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Comments (2)

Jrsjewels writes: Looks fabulous! What a great idea!
Posted: 9:02 pm on August 31st

Babytreese writes: Beautiful! Love that Crafty Chica!! I have a Frida tote like this but will have to get another one! I couldn't bare to part with it! ;-) Thanks so much for the step-by-step process. Gotta make this one!
Posted: 2:30 pm on August 16th

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