personalized holiday tags 2017

I have my personalized tags ready for the the holidays this year! This year I combined something a little older with something new this year - the Warmest Wishes stamp set that debuted several years ago and the Make it Market Mini Kit: Holiday Tag Along. I have a few ideas to share that you might find helpful when creating a batch of tags like this, no matter the season.

When I was thinking about what I want to do for this year's tags, I started to pull out supplies that I might want to use. I really love the tags in the new Make it Market Mini Kit: Holiday Tag Along and so I pulled the dies and stencils from that kit to use. Next I visited my collection of holiday stamps and looked through them until I came across the Warmest Wishes set that was released several years ago. I remember really loving to create with this set and thought that the images might play well with the Holiday Tag Along tags.

I also thought about a color scheme to use for the tags and, inspired again by the Holiday Tag Along kit, decided to use Pure Poppy, Hawaiian Shores, and New Leaf together. I pulled these cardstock colors along with white and kraft to use for the tags.

I love pulling everything together like this for a project. The more I can plan what I want to do and have supplies ready, the less time I spend digging around for the things that I want to use.

I die cut all of the tag bases from kraft cardstock and then I added the die cut details with the insert dies from the Holiday Tag Along kit to some of the tags. On the ones that I used the insert dies, like Tacy's tag here, I added a solid tag base behind the kraft tag.

On the tags that I didn't add the die cut detail, I used the snowflake detail stencil to add a background to the tag with Fresh Snow ink, like I did here on Hana's tag.

One the tag bases were done, I die cut and stamped a bunch of the animals, their accessories, and trees. Once I had done that, I started playing around with arranging things onto the tags. Sometimes I do my tags so they are all alike and sometimes, like this time, I vary things a bit. Everything goes together, but every tag is different.

When I initially started with this idea, I was going to stamp the animal and tree images onto white cardstock and color them with watercolor or markers. But then I decided to let the cardstock do the work for me and stamped everything with black ink. I added some details by doing a little paper piecing - like the white tip on the fox's tail here. I also added some details with a white gel pen to the accessories that the animals are wearing.

For the personalization on each tag, I used the Type Strips II stamp set along with the coordinating Type Bits Strip die. I used a white adhesive sheet to die cut and stamp the letters. Being able to stick the letters down without having to add more adhesive made that part of the process go nice and smooth.

I attached the letters to the notched banner that is a part of the Tag Sale: Quilted die collection. I customized the length of the banner to fit the different names. Just align the die end over your die cut where you want the new end to be and put it through your die cut machine so that it just cuts that end piece. It's easier than you think!

I am so happy to have finished my tags for this year - now to just get to that holiday shopping...! I definitely have a little time yet to get that done.

Supplies (this list includes affiliate links):

 

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope I have given you a bit of inspiration to create personalized tags for the holidays (or anytime!) for special people in your life. I will be back soon with more to share soon!