Twelve Tags of Christmas

I never realized making tags could be so much fun until I took tag classes at Archiver’s several years ago (R.I.P. to my favorite scrapbook store of all time).  At Christmas time they had a workshop called 10 Little Tags which my mom and I took it each year they offered it.  Every tag we made was completely different, and perfect for dressing up Christmas presents. In fact, I still have some Archiver’s originals stashed away somewhere because I couldn’t bear to give away my favorites all at once.

Lately I’ve been obsessed with making tags again.  I should be making Christmas cards, so I thought I would make a few tags and that would motivate me to make cards.  Twelve tags later, I just want to keep making tags!  They’re fast and easy to make even if you’re short on time, creativity or sleep (or all three).

It all started with these Brown Paper Packages tags.  I was itching to use this stamp set featuring lyrics from The Sound of Music song “My Favorite Things” along with the Papertrey Ink Holiday Tag Along kit’s tag base die, since the sentiment fits just so perfectly within the tag’s dimensions.  I was just going to make one of these tags, but then I decided I wanted to try more than one color of baker’s twine so I ended up with three tags.  After that I started playing with the other dies and stamps in the Holiday Tag Along kit and got into a routine of making tags in sets of threes.  It was the perfect number to create different versions of tags using the same theme, without getting bored with them before moving on to the next idea.  All twelve tags were cut from cardstock using the Papertrey Ink Holiday Tag Along kit’s tag dies.

Back to the baker’s twine.  Baker’s twine is one of my crafting staples.  If I think a card looks too simple or has too much white space, I’ll tie baker’s twine around the front in a bow, like I did last week with my Season of Cheer card.  Classic red and white baker’s twine is my favorite, but of course I have a whole stash of different colors of twine.  By some organization miracle, I have all my Christmas tag making supplies stored together in two small containers, so I just kept digging through the bins for embellishments to coordinate with the baker’s twine colors.  The white twine on the snowball tag was actually threaded with a thin gold metallic string, which I separated and removed to make plain white twine.  I love how the tag’s ribbon at the top looks like little snowballs to match the three pom poms I glued to the tag.  The little jingle bells and light blue ribbon were chosen to match the blue and white baker’s twine on the frost blue tag.  For the red holly tag, I threaded a holly berry floral pick by Petaloo through the tag hole and adhered it to the back of the tag.

This next set of tags uses the Joy stamp, snowflake stencil, sequins, and additional dies from the Holiday Tag Along kit.  For the two white tags, I stenciled the snowflake pattern onto them with the Ranger ink blending tool.  The to/from circle was cut using a die from the kit.  Joy! was stamped to the center of the other tag using a stamp from the kit.  Finally the sequins, some Stickles and ribbon were added.  For the blue tag, I cut one tag from navy cardstock and a second tag from light blue cardstock.  The snowflakes in the light blue tag were cut using another die in the kit that makes an intricate snowy pattern.  I glued the two tags together, then glued the to/from circle on top, which was die cut from white cardstock. I added small rhinestones to the snowflake centers.  All of the tags were finished off with matching baker’s twine and ribbons.

For the third tag set, I die cut two tag layers for each tag: one solid tag from light blue or white cardstock, and one tag cut using the various patterned insert dies and the coordinating patterned cardstock from the kit.  Using the insert dies is a two-step process to create the top half’s cuts, then the bottom’s; however, since they nest inside the tag base shape, one can be cut at the same time as the tag outline, so only two passes through the die cut machine are required for the top layer.  You can see how the insert dies work in a photo accompanying the next set of the tags.  I stamped the bottom solid tag layers with the Merry Christmas greeting for one tag, and to/from for the other two tags.  I tied the two tag layers together with baker’s twine.

The final set of tags uses my favorite Christmas color scheme, red and white.  Like the previous set, I die cut two tag layers for each tag.  The solid tags were cut from white glitter cardstock to look like sparkly snow.  The back side of this cardstock is smooth white, so the tag backs can be used to write greetings and recipients’ names if desired.  The top layer of each tag is red cardstock cut using one each of the three different patterned insert dies.  I cut red cardstock circles and then stamped them with Versamark ink and added white embossing powder.  The stamps are from the Papertrey Ink Wonderland kit, and I was amazed how perfectly the images fit on these tags, like they were made for them. I gave the tags more dimension by attaching the stamped circles to the tags with pop dots.  Both tag layers were strung together with baker’s twine.

Which tag set is your favorite?  Are you obsessed with gift wrapping too?  Everything I know about gift wrapping, I learned from my mom.  She always has the most beautiful presents under the tree.  I’m always on the hunt for the prettiest wrap, ribbons, tags and bows… and using handmade tags is the ultimate touch!