Gift-a-palooza

I had a goal to get summer gifts - for at least June and July - done before the baby arrived.  We had two kid birthday parties in June on weekends sandwiching my due date.  So I knew I'd be 1) Hugely pregnant or overdue 2) In labor or 3) The mother of a newborn for the parties.  So the gifts needed to be ready to go and easy to grab quickly or send with a friend to the parties (and one still needs to be delivered - sorry Jenna!).

Last year for these girls' birthdays I ran to Laurel for ideas, so I figured I'd do the same this year and copy her Birthday Tote Bags.  I personalized canvas totes with each girl's initial and filled the bags with coloring books and crayons and fun items that they can use and then throw away.

The "m" turned out better than the "a", which I'm fine with - I figure the "a" looks sort of vintage and taught me what not to do before I started on the "m".  It's all about imperfection over here.

Edited to Add: Sorry I forgot the integral "how-to" portion, my mind!  I bought Avery t-shirt transfer paper (I've tried other transfer papers in the past and Avery is my favorite) and printed out mirror images of the letters (in this font - one of my favorites for projects like this) on the transfer paper and just ironed them onto the bags.  The key difference between the A and the M - for the M I used a pillowcase between the transfer paper and the iron and got a much crisper transfer than when I put the iron directly on the transfer paper for the A.