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A New Life for Old Cards & Gift Wrap Scraps: DIY Gift Tags!
I LOVE CARDS. Based on my obsession with paper goods, it kinda goes without saying.
But sometimes the handwritten hellos begin to pile up. The recycle bin is no place for gorgeous patterns or designs – I just can’t bear to throw a good card away. Eventually, it gets to the point where my bulletin board couldn’t possibly hold anything more. I have the same problem with gift wrap - if I have sheet wrap in a pattern I love, good luck getting me to discard the scraps, no matter the size.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to repurpose old paper materials, in even the tiniest of pieces, by making them into simple gift tags! There’s two routes I usually go with this: recycling old cards and recycling sheet wrap.
Tracing Guide
But first things first – the tag style! It’s totally doable to cut your tags free hand, but if you’d like a little help, download, print and cut out our handy tracing guide. I’d recommend printing on cardstock, so you have a more stable material to trace.
The guide has 4 tag options – one large scalloped design with a matching lil’ guy, and one large basic tag with a smaller matching companion. A heads up: the basic tag is WAY easier to cut. That being said, I think the scalloped ones are (as they say out here in northern California) “hella” cute, so you do you when choosing your tag style, you do you.
Recycling Cards
This only works for folded cards that have writing on only one of the interior panes. If your friends are long winded like me, taking up every inch inside of their cards, then you’re S.O.L. on this one. But if you’ve got a spare half-a-card written on pretty patterned stationery, all you gotta do is:
- Download, print, and cut out your tracing guide
- Chop your card in half and recycle the portion that was written on (or keep in in a box of memories, whatever you choose)
- Trace your tag design (most cards can make at least a few tags each)
- Cut, hole-punch, and thread some twine or string through the hole to affix the tag to a gift
- Download, print, and cut out your tracing guide
- Select your wrapping paper sample. Place pattern side down, evenly distribute rubber cement, and place the cardstock on top. Apply pressure, smooth out any bubbles, and let it dry (I’m impatient, so it’s a miracle if I give it even 10 minutes and things usually turn out just fine)
- Trace your tag design (most cards can make at least a few tags each)
- Cut, hole-punch, and thread some twine or string through the hole to affix the tag to a gift