How to make handmade paper Christmas gift
tags
For the past few Christmas seasons I've been offering
free Christmas gift wrapping on all
Microfleur flower presses and Going Green
paper making kits, and I've always included a free handmade paper gift
tag. Sometimes it's a pressed fern/Christmas tree tag, other times a
pressed Queen Anne's Lace flower/snowflake tag, either way, they are fun to
make, and a great way to display potential creativity!
Here's my favorite way of making handmade paper gift
tags, with handmade 2 x 2" handmade paper using the
Gift
Tag mold and deckle paper making kit.
1. Using the 2 x 2" deckle, make the
desired amount of handmade paper - for Christmas gift tags I use/recycle
white paper, and add a generous dash of glitter for sparkle.
2. Cut 2 1/2" x 5" pieces of cardstock, one
for each gift tag. Take each strip, fold in half, and glue a handmade
square onto the front. I use an Avery permanent glue stick for
this.
3. Decide what kind of pressed material you
would like on the front. In this instance I've used individual fronds
of a large fern I pressed years ago, cut into the shape of Christmas trees.
I colored the "trees" with a Prismacolor marker for a darker evergreen
color. If you don't have any pressed ferns on hand, the "filler" ferns
available in flower shops press well in the Microfluer.
4. Apply your pressed material to the
handmade paper, using PPA or
Elmer's Glue.
5. Embellish your tag if you wish - I sometimes
draw a border around the handmade paper with a silver or gold glitter pen,
or you can add a ribbon, etc.
6. For a nice finishing touch, place the gift
tag in a glassine envelope. These tiny translucent envelopes allow the
pressed material inside to show through, and make a really nice
presentation. They can be hard to find, so if you need some, you can
find them here.
7. Need a quick Christmas or birthday gift
idea? Make sets of 5 or so gift tags using a variety of pressed
flowers, stack them up on top of each other, and tie with raffia.
A great hostess gift!
| 
