Happy Friday: Thrifty Backpack Creation

Hip2Save may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you via trusted partners and affiliate links in this post. Prices and availability are accurate as of time posted. Read our full disclosure policy here.

Sent from reader, Kristin:

We got a free backpack from a church event and used leftover craft items to embellish it and make it amazing! A really fun craft for back to school and it was totally free!!!

HAPPY FRIDAY! 😀


Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save(dot)com. Every Friday, I will post one photo, submitted by you and/or another Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into your frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card!

Join The Discussion

Comments 72

  1. Rachel

    Very cool to personalize something mediocre into something she’ll love. (Although I prefer using initials so creepy strangers don’t know her name).

    • Laura

      Completely agree! Too many weirdos out there.

    • Rebe

      To be honest with you, my first thought was that she had made a “Frozen” backpack and that her daughter’s favorite character was Anna. Also, monograms are very common and I dont see the danger if her girl does not have to walk alone to school. Well done Kristin! 🙂

    • makaylaisabel

      I see monogramming way too much. Many think it’s cute but it does make them a target. Kids will answer to those calling out their names and think they are not strangers.

      Nevertheles, cute idea. I could do this for a fun bag to travel or so like Disney or outings.

    • ish

      STFU

      • laura

        There is no need for that language. Hopefully you think that stfu means something else.

  2. Queenmum

    So cute!!!!

  3. tef

    You can only do so much to avoid the weirdos..Ignore.them. great work! 🙂 if you go with initials there is a danger in that too. Good night. It’s not a big deal. Way to ruin a great idea. It isn’t her address. Pull the stick outta ya bums.

    • ahs

      The idea is in no way ruined, only suggesting caution. Unnecessarily rude comment.

  4. Katie

    That is super cute! Just be careful if your child usually walks home from school. If predators know your child’s name (if they see it on a backpack), your child will be more willing to stop and talk to him.

    • Vanessa

      Totally agree. It is a very cute backpack though.

    • RA Cashier

      Well I would hope that the child wouldn’t talk to them even if they knew their name. Also it’s not the child’s full name, there’s not much you can find out about a child just from their first name especially with a popular name like Anna.

    • Marcie

      Yes, SUPER adorable! I love it!!! But yes, please be careful with having her name on there. It’s so sad that we have to even worry about that garbage 🙁

    • Erica

      Haha, I was thinking of Anna from the movie Frozen, I missed it could actually be the child’s name but good point.

    • kaylynn

      or her….. predators need to stop getting the male stigma.

      • Leslie

        You couldn’t be more correct about that one. Women will sometimes be used as bait or so the abuse themselves.

      • Katie

        Oh, I wasn’t trying to imply that only males can be predators … ‘him’ is grammatically correct when referring to men and/or women. 🙂

        • Ashley57

          Says who? I am a college level English professor and I have never heard that one.

  5. Jen

    great idea, sooo cute!!!

  6. chely

    agree! she shouldnt have the name in the backpack…

  7. Yasmincrz

    That is so cute! And an excellent way to spend Time with the kids

  8. Meg

    How wonderful! Your daughter will always remember this project…quality time and well spent! Kudos to you! 🙂

  9. ChristinainVegas

    Super cute! Would have loved that when I was little! FYI those parents concerned with all the crazy people out there like I am- I read something recently a story of a boy who had escaped a recent stranger trying to lure him away with the script “your mom is in the hospital and asked me to pick you up!” Boy was smart said okay what’s the password? Of course caught the man off guard and the boy ran away. Parents and child previously discussed this situation and agreed on a password! Very easy and clever I will be using this with my little ones

    • Cara

      Yes, we have a password. So last year when my daughter was in kindergarten and occasionally a friend of mine would pick her up when getting her daughter she would whisper the password in my daughter’s ear.
      We have a personalized bag (first name only) too and it is worth a talk with your child of not stopping to talk to someone they don’t know even of the person seemed to know their name.

    • Dee

      Great idea!

    • RA Cashier

      I read that too! Defiantly gonna do that with my kids when I have them, I’m a senior in high school now(:

    • Vanessa

      Good information on the password. Thanks for sharing.

    • Shannon

      We also do the secret password thing. I do have a fear of someone getting that close to my child, but it’s a good idea. I see no harm in them having their name on their backpack.

    • Mosley Mom

      We have a two part password. Kinda like beanstalk. My son would say, “bean” and the other person would have to say “stalk”
      We haven’t had to use it yet, but he knows it by heart in kindergarten!

  10. e

    The “weirdos” are likely to be people you know and trust so the name on the backpack really doesn’t matter. Have lots of conversations about abuse and teach your kids self defense.

    • Rebe

      RAD kids!

    • Rebe

      “The weirdos are likely to be people you know”, that’s the scariest part “e”! Check the statistics for your state, but on average, at least 50% of child abuse is done by a family member or a close family friend! 🙁

    • ChristinainVegas

      Very sad but true!!!

  11. D

    Cute!! I agree about putting names on things as not a great idea in some aspects. But I pick up and drop off my kids, they have no contact w strangers w/out me so it wouldn’t be an issue. So for some of you it may be a bad idea, but no need to be judgy. Not everything is for everyone. We already live w/ enough negativity in the world..Sheesh.

  12. rebecca

    a new topic besides predators 🙂 i bought my daughter a backpack that was this same brand a couple years ago, and it was on sale at Walgreens for super cheap. i didn’t know what to expect, but it held up beautifully, i was even able to throw it in the wash after the school year ended, and we have continued to use it for travelling and stuff. it looks like a fake Jansport, and i think it was under $5.
    for an elementary age child, if you don’t want to spend the $45 or whatever, hers was cute and sturdy. she only needed it for folders/supplies/lunch. (not heavy texts.) i recommend.

    • Angela

      The washing part is why this craft is not practical for me. I too often wash my kids bags and this is just not going to hold up. To multiple washings. Those white letters will soon be gray. Maybe it is just me, but I thought the plain backpack looked just fine, but I am a simple girl!

  13. Sue

    Awesomely cute backpack! All her friends are going to want one now, too!

  14. Yessenia

    This is so cute!! I’m going to show this to my girls and see if they get inspired!!!

  15. Nicole

    I think it’s really sad so many people are freaking out about having the name on the back pack, if your child is old enough to be walking to school by themselves, they should be smart enough not to go off with some person they don’t know. Maybe its just me and the fact that my mom never let us walk home alone when I was young and if she wasn’t with us we had to be in a group of kids that lived on the same street or not much farther. I think it looks great and is super cute!

    • meg

      I agree! If someone really wants to harm your child it makes no difference if they know their name or not! It’s a cute backpack.

    • kaylynn

      agree!!

    • shop4mybabies

      so apparently the thousands of kids that are taken each year, are just not smart enough. that is not only ridiculous, but plain insensitive of you to imply

  16. Guest

    Seriously…these comments

  17. Laura

    Says the potty mouthed southerner who doesn’t take child safety seriously.

    • Liz

      Haha oh my

    • meg

      Your comment is not any better….

    • tab

      Agree with Meg…Just wondering why yhe cussing person is labeled as a southerner.

    • L

      Why exactly would you “ASSume” she/he is a southerner??

    • Guest

      You’re funny.

  18. bero

    Name or not, it was a cute and creative idea!

  19. meg

    Kristin…just ignore most of the comments. It’s a very cute and creative backpack. I think its fine with the name. Some may not think so but that is not the point of the post!!! Geeze.

  20. ahs

    Nice to know! I was wondering, my boys are pretty hard on their bags.

  21. Barb J

    how neat. very craftsy.

  22. kaylynn

    THIS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN IF I WOULD BUY A MONOGRAMMED BACKPACK FROM LANDS END. STOP CRITICIZING THE POOR WOMAN. She was sharing her hard work with her daughter and you all keep saying how she shouldn’t of done it. NO – You wouldn’t and we don’t care.

  23. Jennifer

    Tilla, this is off topic but I remembered you saying you were going to Disney in July in one of your comments. Was wondering if the heat was unbearable at that time?

    • shop4mybabies

      it wasn’t. it was mid 80’s every day.

    • Jessica

      We went in June and then July the next year. It’s hot, so just be prepared to take breaks from the heat. Some of the rides are air conditioned and even the lines are in some of them. My advice is hit the parks as soon as they open. Most rides have almost no wait time or very little. Either leave to the hotel to swim and cool off around lunchtime or stay and find a restaurant with ac to relax and cool off. We usually took a swim break and went back at night. We LOVE Disney. It’s so fun.

      • shop4mybabies

        thank you, we actually already went and got back. because the kids I took aren’t little enough for resting anymore, we actually went 13-15 hours a day! it was awesome fun! loved every second of it. wish we could go back more frequently than every 8 years or so

    • CW

      Hi, I live in Florida and I’m an annual passholder. It depends on where you are from and the level of heat/humidity you are used to. With the heat index, it’s often 99-105 degrees. Even us residents (and husband who is a rare native!) call it unbearable. Bring tons of water. Don’t pay $4.50 a bottle, they let you bring a small 6 pack soft cooler/lunch box in. Start when the park opens and do the most popular rides first that have the 1-2 hr waits and/or outside wait line only. A lot of residents skip the hot parks in the summer and do their waterparks (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach) or inside gaming called DisneyQuest at Downtown Disney instead. Save yourself by not drinking soda and wear sunscreen and apply every 2 hrs. Too many tourists that aren’t used to 100 degrees and 1 hr lines in the heat often find themselves dehydrated and with heat stroke. Sunburned, passed out tourists are the ongoing joke in the summers. Better to travel, by the way, in Sept/October which we call “resident months”. Lol

  24. Jenny

    Good lord….. The poor woman can’t even show off her creative art project without being scolded. Why does everything always have to turn political. Awesome job. I LOVE the name Anna. Thank you for sharing.

    • D

      Agreed. Some people needa chill pill

  25. Jennifer

    Oh my goodness, this is a neat backpack idea! No one has to put their child’s name on a backpack if you decorate one of your own. It’s simply to give us ideas that we can modify if needed. Not sure why the cute idea has gotten people to actually bash each other. So sad!

  26. L

    I love this bag! Super cute and crafty!

    Side note- as far as a name being on a bag, my kids actually have hard tags from the elementary school on their book bags with their names on them, their bus number and their teachers name.

  27. I Love Shoes

    I love the backpack.This was a perfect post. Although the focus of this post changed a little, I want to point out that I learned from it. I wasn’t aware of practicing a password and what someone else mentioned about not making a child’s room to be easily identified. I want to point out that a child’s name can be identified in other ways other than a backpack. How many times have you visited a local store and a parent constantly calls the child’s name over and over again? Before you leave the store everyone is calling the child by their name. How many times you attended a little league anything and parents cheerfully scream out their kids name and wave banners with their name and uniform numbers? In the mist of all of that some parents may not realize they sharing personal information like their child attends this school, that academy etc. Sometimes a jazzy backpack is just a nice jazzy backpack. I will definitely make a replica of this backpack.

  28. Tamara

    Adorable! Creative and Fun! Drab to FAB 🙂 I love how girly it is and I hope she enjoys her Beautiful pack.

  29. Tamara

    Oh and as for all the predator talk, I just think it is sad that we even have to worry about these monsters. They really need to stiffin’ up the punishment for predators. Get them off the streets for GOOD! It’s sad that this adorable project has everyone worried about a very Valid concern. Predators, lock them up and throw away the key!!!

  30. kw

    Very cute…. you did a great job on this book bag. Thanks for sharing

  31. Ashley C.

    I did this for my son and daughter who just started school. We used our 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby and they each chose a patch to put on their backpack that we bought at HEB with their backpack deal. 🙂

  32. Dawn

    Keeping my eyes open for a bright green backpack I can paint minecraft creeper face on it 🙂

  33. Leslie

    Oh good grief. There are a million ways someone can find out your kids name. We have such a thorough record of everything online, predators can find out more than enough information with a quick google search. If you’ve ever filled out a questionnaire online or in person, that data has been sold for marketing purposes. My DH works for a very large and reputable marketing company and confirms that there is no such thing as family anonymity. When I was a kid in the early 80s parents were warned not to use identifying information on the kids… That was 30 years ago. We need to be more cautious of the people we have our kids around. Most abuse happens by family members or family friends. My friends daughter was molested by the very nice man next door. You need to educate your kids, be honest with them and educate yourself too about predators. Just because the mom made something cute with her kids name, you bash her? Check yourself. I think some of you are being unnecessarily rude when we should just be inspired by the craftiness.

    To the mom who made the backpack – you did an AMAZING JOB!

    • ahs

      I have to say, most of the insults and bashing are coming from those who are “defending” (for lack of a better word) the post. The worst I’ve seen from the anti-name group is “you shouldn’t put your child’s name on a bag,” with no actual disparaging remarks on the post. Whereas the other side, there’s been reference to chill pills, sticks in bums and one obscene comment that got deleted.
      It’s a cute bag, thanks for sharing.

  34. JOann

    It was interesting reading all the comments– I have been a teacher for many years and I would plead for all to listen— The importance of teaching your children not to interact with strangers and to “report” any strange behavior from friends/family can never be overstated.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

It's not your Grandma's coupon site!

Sign up for a Hip2Save account (it's free) to access all of the awesome features!

Forgot Password?

Don't have an account? Register

Forgot Password

Don't have an account? Register

Become a Hip2Save Insider

Don't Miss Out! Join our large community of insiders - it's totally free! Once you join, you'll be able to save & share your favorite deals, rate posts and recipes and add items to your HipList and Cookbook! What are ya waiting for?!



Already have an account? Login

Thank you for rating!

Would you also like to leave us a comment?