This is going to be my first 'January' effort for the Make A Month 2012 Challenge, although, in many ways, it seems almost like cheating as it is very, very simple!
When putting away the Christmas decorations on the 6th January, I hate throwing the cards away! Instead, I use them to make Christmas gift tags for next Christmas. In doing this, I am following what my Mum always did and it has become very much a Christmas tradition with me as well.
It is very simple to do! All you need are the cards and some pinking shears. If you want to be 'posh' and make gift tags with little cotton ties, you would also need a hole punch and some thread ..... although I don't bother myself!.
How do you go about this? Well, you first need to carefully look at each card and where it's been written on to see if it's suitable.
This is one I discarded! You could possibly make a 'jokey' gift tag for an adult, but this isn't to my taste!
This one has much more potential. In particular, the top right-hand of the picture with the 'Christmas Wishes' caught my eye.
All I did was to fold the front of the card so the words were central in what will be the front of the gift tag.
I then used the pinking shears to cut round what will be the edge of the tag. A word of warning at this point! Only use a pair of pinking shears that you
don't want to use for fabric! After using them to cut card, they will be useless for fabric! Believe me, I've done it! I actually ruined these pinking shears in this way, so this pair is for card only and I have another pair for fabric! Also, it may be because these pinking shears are old and quite heavy but cutting card with them is quite heavy on the hands. Be prepared to take a rest every now and again!
Here's the finished tag. As I said, you could punch a hole in the top left-hand corner and tie some thread through it, especially if you wanted to make these as a fund raising item. However, I don't bother with this! When I actually come to use the gift tag, I stick it onto the present with some sticky tape.
The finished tag from another angle!
With this card, The 'Merry Christmas' was all I was interested in.
So I had to fold the card this way to get the tag I wanted ..... one with a fold at the top.
A simple but effective tag that would look good with a solid coloured wrapping paper.
For this one, I only wanted a portion of the card with the snowflakes in the top right-hand corner.
So I have to eye-ball where the card needed to be folded as you can see above. You'll be amazed how quickly you can see the possibilities with any given card!
Again, a quite elegant gift tag. Although with the examples I've shown, I've only cut out one tag from the cards, in practice you will possibly find you can make several gift tags from each card. It all depends on the picture really!
With some Christmas cards, like this one, there may not be an obvious fold-line to produce a folded tag. However, this jolly snowman can be turned into a nice gift tag for children.
Just cut round the outside edge of the snowman. To use this one, fold the white pom-pom of the hat. You can write on the other side of the snowman and stick the tag to the present using the pom-pom as the anchor point. Of course, you could use a hole punch to make a hole in the pom-pom and thread through some thread to make a threaded gift tag.
So ..... after a couple of hours work, I have a nice selection of gift tags for next Christmas.
I probably could have make many more from the cards I had, but this lot is plenty enough for me!
Also, the eagle-eyed might spot something else I managed to salvage from my Christmas cards in the bottom left-hand corner. Two pieces of ribbon, a button and a little Father Christmas charm. All will come in handy at some time or other :)
