Make It Yourself: Gift Tags

Several folks have asked how I made the tags for our office gifts. It really was a simple process, but it occurred to me that it might be simple because I know how to use graphic design software.

Now, "know how" is a tricky term. As in - easy for me, maybe not so easy for you.

And since I've been on the other side of the fence more times than I care to count, I thought I'd give you a step-by-step to creating your own personalized tags.

Step One: Find a piece of clip art that you like. This comes from one of my favorite (free!) digital scrapbooking websites, Shabby Princess:


Step Two: Adjust the clip art using an image software, like Photoshop.

Assuming you have Photoshop, here's how to make this tree work for you...

Step Two B: Scale the image to make it wider ("squattier"):


Step Two C: Change the opacity on the image from 100% saturation to 50%. This will make the image work better in the background, allowing my gift tag text to stand out:

Step Two D: Flatten the image (taking it from multiple layers to a single layered image):

Step Two E: Save the image as a jpg or png file (to make it smaller):

Step Three: Create a table in your word processing software. Using Microsoft Word, I set my table as a 4x4 square, with each cell measuring exactly 1.75 inches wide and 2 inches high.

Step Four: Adjust the table borders to the lightest shade of gray and lightest line weight you can easily see:

Step Five: Place your clipart and text in each cell. I inserted who it was "from" (The Boy or Me, depending on the office) along with details of what was in the gift. Fiddle with the text color and font style until it looks perfect!

Step Six: Print on medium weight cardstock. Cut tags using table borders (that's why you needed to see the lines!) as guides:

Step Seven: Punch hole in the corner:

Step Eight: Tie onto packages and accept all of the compliments, knowing that it wasn't much work at all!!