My daughter goes to kindergarten this fall and I wanted to perk up her school bag. At her school the PTA graciously gives each kindergarten student a blue tote bag with the school logo. It's practical and a lot easier to carrier than a backpack. But it's very plain. With my son I added a few soccer patches and he was happy. But a girl is a different story.....
So we added beads, ribbon and iron on flowers and dragon flies. My sewing machine has a basic font to write names so we added that as well. We had lots of fun doing this project. Hope it gives you ideas to add some style to your plain tote.