First things first: if you didn't read this post's title in your best Joan Crawford Mommie Dearest voice, I'm really going to need you to take a moment and do that. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm going to wait right here while you go check out some video clips concerning her and wire hangers.
I'll wait.
Great! You're back! On to today's post!
See those? Those seemingly innocuous scraps (that also, for the record, included a second square of the same size) still tickled my brain with concern. What would I do with them? The squares were really too small to become a major card front and the strip seemed definitely useless for much of anything, but I still wanted to do something with them. It wasn't long before I decided they would be perfect for small gift tags!
It's delightful to be right! With virtually zero effort, I got 8 tags (3 big, 5 small). Ready to make some? Here's what you need:
- Watercolor scraps (check my tutorial here to make your own watercolor designed paper)
- Tag punch, die cut, stencil, or template (and hole punch if using a stencil or template)
- Ribbon or baker's twine (optional at this point)
- Stamps (optional)
Simply line up whichever implement you're using to shape the tags on the paper for a pleasing design. I wanted some of the tags to have vertical stripes and some to have horizontal, but past that, I wasn't very picky.
All my scraps were small enough that I could only get one tag at a time and it still took me less than an hour to make all of these. You'll notice that they have a bit of a curl to them. I don't mind that, but if it stresses you out, these will flatten out just fine under a book.
If you like gilding the lily, you can stamp these with a design on the front. "To/From" on the back would be lovely. If you're feeling extra sassy, you can emboss them (I have a tutorial on that right here). Finally, if you feel so inclined, run ribbon or the ubiquitous baker's twine through the hole. I personally refrain until I'm ready to tie it to a package so I'm pulling off the right length, but please don't let my obsessive need to overthink everything hinder you.
The best news for me, of course, is that I wiped out those scraps and got three very useful projects out of one batch of watercolor painting. This, for me, feels like the essence of Just Stash January. Let me know if you make any of these projects or how you would use up the scraps!