Quick & Easy Christmas Gift Tags & Gift Card Holders

At this local outpost of Santa's workshop, the shopping may be done but frantic work is definitely still in progress on packaging and wrapping gifts. But a frazzled brain can make it hard to get those creative juices going to create those extra little touches for holiday gifts! So what can you do? I grabbed a few sheets of cardstock stickers I had on hand and created a couple of "recipes" for tag designs that could be duplicated over and over. Problem solved!I needed two types of tags for my gifts this year: gift name tags and tags to hold gift cards. Now my personal holiday style tends towards jewel tones and lace and vintage goodness. But all of these tags were for gifts for kids under age 12, so I knew I needed something bright and colorful and fun. And sitting in my Christmas stash I found just the thing - the Christmas Wishes and Winter Wonder collections by Bella Blvd. (Thanks to Bella Blvd for supplying the editorial samples that were used in these projects.) Even if you are over 12...who can help but feel festive when faced with multi-color penguins?The first tags I made were the gift name tags. These followed a very quick and simple formula:

 The circular element is popped with foam tape for dimension.

A block of patterned paper, two pieces of border sticker, a large element, a small element, three word stickers, and the name are all the elements needed for this design. It can be repeated over and over from these stickers sheets.

Tag Base: American Tag. Once I established the basic pattern on the tag above, it was easy to repeat it. For the second tag I used Bella Blvd's Christmas Wishes collection: Since Elizabeth's name is so long, I couldn't use the Bella collection's large letters. I had to find some smaller ones. The smaller option from a sheet of Webster's Pages Storyteller alphabets was just the right size.  

Tag: American Tag; Alphabet: Webster's Pages (Hollywood).Basic tags may be my thing, but fancy and functional gift card holders are not.  For help, I turned to May's Fabulous Gift Card Holders video for inspiration. Of course, I went straight for the tag gift card holder! May's version was full of delicious vintage detail, but for kids I decided to adapt it a bit: make it simpler and brighter.This project was also exciting to take on because it was my first chance to use my new sewing machine that I bought on Thanksgiving weekend on a scrapbooking project. Using the sewing machine meant that I had to switch from the really heavyweight American Tag tags to cutting my own out of lighter weight cardstock for the gift tags.I followed the basic outline and form of May's tag design - the slanted pocket, the sewn on backside, the patterned paper panel and the decorative element on the bottom. But I kept the decorative parts of the design simple and bright.Since this tag is intended for a girl, I added an extra element on this one - self-adhesive bling along the bottom of it. The gift card coordinates nicely with the red border sticker and the snowman element, which is attached with foam adhesive for dimension. The back of the tag was created from more of the snowflake patterned paper that is on the front.

Recollections Adhesive Rhinestones & Sheer Creations Ribbon (Michael's); Fine Point Pen (Sharpie); Snowflake Stamp (Northwoods Rubber Stamps). The stamp that I used is no longer available but Tim Holtz's Grunge Flakes or Hero Arts' Enjoy the Season sets would work as a substitute. I made a second version of the same gift card holder tag with the Christmas Wishes collection: This time I used white cardstock for the background and spritzed it with Perfect Pearls mist to give it some texture and holiday sparkle. I used the discontinued snowflake stamp again but again the Hero Arts or Tim Holtz snowflakes can substitute.    

Did you notice I was using the same few elements over and over from the collections? With the sticker sheets and just 4 sheets of patterned paper (and a few additions from my stash), I basically created myself a kit that would make those 4 tags and probably at least another half dozen additional ones, with plenty of leftovers for scrapping your holiday pictures!Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?