Good morning from Tumbleweed Tidings! Today, I’m sharing a very easy DIY that will let you play with scrapbook paper, string, stickers, a paper cutter, and paper punch. In other words, I’m taking you back to kindergarten! This DIY is not only easy and cost effective, but the end result turned out nicer than the ones I typically purchase, making it the DIY Trifecta in my book! You may remember a couple of weeks ago I made a banner for our dining room mirror that said Good Tidings. The banner was made out of sturdy, textured scrapbook paper, and when I was done I had a lot left over, between the scraps from the banner, as well as the extra sheets I had purchased. If you missed that post, you can view it here: Getting Crafty…

Not wanting to waste the remaining scrapbook paper, I decided to try my hand at making my own gift tags. Inspired, I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased sheets of stick-on holiday images. There are a myriad of choices in this department, so you can go ultra glitzy in golds and silvers, or more tradition colors like I chose. Note: I apologize that many of these photos are a little blurry.

Back home with my stickers, it was time to make the tags. With the help of my 15 year old granddaughter Cassidy, the first step was to cut out the gift tag shapes. We tried some different styles, but in the end, liked the traditional tag shape of a rectangle with two corners clipped. The next step was to apply the stickers to the face of the tag. This was easy and fun, especially the elf shoes:)

The final step was to make the hole at the top of the tag using a paper punch, and running the package twine through the top. When they were all done, we were so proud not only of how easy they were to make, but how nice they turned out. In the end, I think we made over 60 tags for about $5. We even had our first sale of ten tags to Cassidy’s mother when she picked her up. Being smart entrepreneurs, we promptly used that $5 to reinvest in more stickers:) Note: We aren’t really selling these…my daughter was just wanting to be supportive of our endeavor.

Over the past week, my husband and I have been wrapping packages together, getting them ready to ship. I have used these tags on each gift and they are working great, writing the To: and From: on the back side of each tag as I go along. This DIY was so much fun, and since I always prefer making something that has a practical application at the end, these gift tags fit the bill. The big question I kept asking myself was “why haven’t I been doing this forever?” I have spent untold dollars at Hallmark over the years, purchasing nice quality gift tags, when I could have been making them for pennies each.

So there you have it; an easy, cost effective, and practical DIY that has options only limited by your imagination. At the craft store, there are literally hundreds of styles of scrapbook paper, for every season and occasion, as well as plain colors just waiting to be embellished. You can choose from the huge selection of stickers or make your own to fit the occasion, like trees and stars for Christmas, out of a contrasting paper. To attach the tags, you can use cording, ribbon, or jute twine, again whatever you have on hand. I hope you have enjoyed my trip back to kindergarten crafting. If 2020 has done anything, it has given me a few days where all I want to do is roll out my rug, get a blanket, and take a little nap until 2021! Okay, class dismissed.

Good tidings,

Diane