Welcome back! Today's gift of love for you is a tutorial I hope you'll find useful and inspiring: three tag variations! They are all simple and all quick to make. These thin little guys are the first!
I have a pretty constant love affair with tags. They are just endlessly useful and making them is pretty simple with lots of room for variations and embellishments. Let's start out with a simple one that requires just the smallest touch of craftiness on your end. I was initially inspired to make these when I looked at my washi tape collection. First, I measured the width of the tapes I wanted to use then cut card stock into strips that were equally as wide and long enough for me to stamp a sentiment on.
This awkward picture shows me adding the washi tape. I started one end of the washi tape approximately one inch from the short side edge of the card stock. I simply wrapped it over and smoothed a corresponding inch of it over the other side. I then used a stiff business card as my sharp edge and pressed it against the tape while I tore. This gives a pretty smooth edge to the tape.
Then it's just a case of inking a stamp and stamping the card stock. Here is one that's basically complete (except for a whole punched and a piece of twine looped through. But you didn't need a picture of that process, right?):
There are a couple of potential variations I can think of for this project (besides the obvious of inking edges, creating a shaped edge, etc.). The first one is if you want a wider tag. Then you would just wrap the washi tape from the top edge of your tag around and over the bottom and back up the other side. This way you aren't depending on the width of the washi tape for a finished decorative edge; you are determining it by the length instead. The second variation would be layering cute decorative scrap paper over the end. A little dab of glue and you have a cute pattern just like that!
The next set isn't really much harder to make, particularly if you have a die cutting machine of some kind.
If you do have such a machine, it's easy to pick out the size and shape of tags you want and cut them out. Depending on the program, you can even add the heart cutout right in there so the machine does all the work for you. If you don't, you can still seek out a template or stencil and draw two tags on two different papers. Then you can use a heart shaped punch or another template to trace and cut out a heart from the paper that will be the top tag. Once that's done, glue the top tag to the bottom tag, punch a hole, and loop some twine or ribbon through.
For this tag, I really wanted to highlight the adorable scattered star pattern on the paper underneath:
I wanted a simpler tag the second time with just the classic pink and white and some gold ink brushed lightly over all the exposed edges.
I am positive I have mentioned my terrible scrap hoarding tendencies before (something that makes all of these tags so ideal: they only take small pieces of paper). What can I say? I really took my grandparents' lesson to heart: waste not, want not. So when I saw the perfectly good heart that was left after being cut out of the first two tags, I saw an opportunity to make two more tags!
This one was really simple. Just glue the heart down and then use a decorative edge punch to pretty up the bottom of it.
The second one takes slightly more effort. Place the heart wherever you wish on the tag. Then, using a pushpin or a paper piercing awl, pierce a line of holes through both the heart and the tag.
After that, just use some embroidery floss or thread and sew it down. Fold up either side for a little more 3-D effect.
And just like that, you have a multitude of tags for those Valentine/Galentine/Anytime gifts!
Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite! See you tomorrow for another day of love!