Make Your Own Christmas Gift Tags

Christmas is coming and we all know what this means: time to decorate and gift wrap all of the presents! If you are the crafty type you probably like to put your own special touches on your Christmas presents. But even if you don't consider yourself particularly crafty, making your own gift tags is an easy and simple craft that most can do in an hour's time. These gift tags are a great way to make your Christmas gifts look unique to others that are given during the holidays.

For this craft you will need:

Below is a list of suggested supplies. Please note that you will probably not need all of the supplies to make gift tags, but these are all of the supplies mentioned.

Dover Clip Art books

Dover sticker books

Dover Victorian Angel or Santa mini picture books (often used for decoupage projects and card making)

Glue sticks (the clear kind)

Metallic paint pens in gold and silver

Glitter pens

Stickers, holiday themes and other themes that appeal to you

Gel pens of all colors

Card stock, especially white, ivory, red and green - can use other colors if they appeal to you

Scissors, another idea is to use Fiskar scissors to get fancy edges

A hole punch

Calligraphy pen

Stencils for lettering

Ribbon

Tape

There are so many different ways to make this project, it all depends on what type of design and personality you would like your gift tags to have. But most gift tags have some type of holiday greeting (Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays) and also a To and From listing so that people know who the gift is for and who the gift is from. Your gift tag can be designed in a card style, where you fold the card stock over and make a mini card out of it, or you can simply make it postcard style and have it be one sided or use both sides of it.

The best way to make your gift cards is to begin with an image that you like. For example, Dover makes a book of Victorian Angels that you can cut out and use for a variety of craft projects. These can be used for cards, for decoupage and lots of other ideas. These are very pretty for gift tags. Select an angel or two that you like and cut them out, cutting carefully to not miss any details.

Then size your gift cards. Gift cards should be mini. Some gift cards can be very small, like even two to three inches square if you like. Or you can make them a bit larger. A good size to work with is four and a half inches square. This usually gives you enough room for a pretty design and to tell someone whose present this is. If you are designing this as a card style gift tag, then you would cut a piece of card stock to be nine inches and then fold it in half to be four and a half inches.

Decide if you would like a greeting or just place the person's name on the gift tag. Then use the metallic paint pen or one of the gel pens to write your message or their name. You can use stencils to get fancy lettering. A calligraphy pen will also give you pretty handwriting.

Glue the angel to the card next to your greeting. Outline the card with the metallic paint pen or the gel pen, make a pretty design. Ideally your gift card should compliment if not totally match your gift wrapping style.

Tie the gift card onto the package with a pretty ribbon. Then make more!