and does it herself.

I'll start by saying that I am not artistic in any way, shape or form. I've always wanted to be, and I so admire people with an innate ability to create something beautiful, but that quality bypassed me in the birth canal. As did any cooking skills. That shopping gene, however, that one seemed to stick.

Anyway, there was a little blurb in the November issue of InStyle about how to paint your own American Apparel leather pouch. It didn't look too hard to mess up, even for me, so I decided to give it a shot. I bought a neutral, camel-colored clutch from American Apparel ($50), three different colors of acrylic paint from an art store that I didn't belong in ($9), three of those foam brush things ($1) and three different kinds of tape ($9), because I don't know what masking tape is, apparently. None of the three kinds of tape I bought ended up being masking tape, by the way, but the clear kind worked just fine and didn't leave residue on the bag. So for $70 and hours of entertainment/fun, I got myself a new accessory that I can carry with pride.

Before:

Halfway there...

After:

Last note- when I was shopping for the bag I told the salesgirl what I was planning to do, and she showed me some pictures they had at the counter of similar projects- including one of the fabulous and adorable Blair of Atlantic-Pacific and her patriotic clutch!