DIY Gift Tags

 For many years I have made my own gift tags. I bought a paper punch many years ago that is a tag maker that has a punch that puts a hole in the top to hang it.

Fiskars Tag Maker

For years I would make about a hundred tags out of plain card stock in green, red and blue. Then I would use a holiday stamp to decorate the front of the tag and write the To and From on the back.  One year I decided to make tags that were stamped with pictures on the front, and instead of writing on the back I punched out ornament or circle shapes and stamped the kid's initial on the shape. I didn't need to write who it was from, because we all knew who the crazy woman was that made the tags, lol.  

Tags made with stamps and ink and punched shapes.

Different backs of the tags

The next few years I punched tags out of Christmas printed paper and then used a "To and From" stamp on the back. These were a lot less work, but I was back to writing the names again. The writing was the part I disliked the most.

Tags punched from one sided printed paper

Then a few years ago I had a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I went back through my cell phone pictures and found great individual pictures of each one of my kids, grandkids, and couple pictures of my kids and their spouses. Next, I went to the Walgreens photo department online and downloaded the photos of the kids. I ordered sheets of wallet size photos of each of the pictures. I used the tag punch, centered it over the picture and made sure the hole was not in the forehead of the kids. I love these tags! All I have to do is attached the picture to the gift, no writing needed. I will only have to update them every few years.

Photo tags. I don't publish pictures of my family, hence the added flowers.

Last year for my grandkids I had a little fun with one of their gifts. I had their picture tags to put on the gift, but instead of just hanging them on the gift, I incorporated them into the wrapping paper. The kids had fun finding their pictures. 

It was hard to take a picture of this shiny paper without the glare. 

I am sure I will get tired of the picture tags one day, and I have no idea what I will come up with next. But right now they are still my favorite.