12 Days of Christmas: Charming Vintage Gift Tags

Happy 4th Day in our 12 Days of Christmas Projects series! Today’s my day! Woohooo!

Oh, and happy “Cyber Monday!” (Who comes up with these terms anyway??)

Were you one that braved the Black Friday crowds and scored some amazing deals this weekend? Are you taking advantage of Cyber Monday deals? Are you an early bird and already have your Christmas shopping done? Or are you a last minute person?

Hahaha I think I’m “all of the above.” ;)

Okay, how about this one. Have you WRAPPED those gifts yet?

When I was growing up I was often assigned the job of “Santa’s helper” and helped my mom wrap presents for my seven younger siblings. We were usually tight on money, so we got creative with the wrapping. There were years we “made” wrapping paper by decorating white butcher paper or kraft paper (and even recycled brown paper bags) with stamps, paint, or doodled designs.  We usually had a small stash of used giftbags and “nice” giftwrap we had recycled from gifts we’d received previously. And there were other times we used old newspaper (the comics section was my favorite) to wrap as well.

Tags? Most of the time I just folded a scrap of paper and scribbled a ”To” and “From” on it. But sometimes I’d get a bit more creative and dig into the sticker stash or cut fun shapes from construction paper.

Now days I still like to get creative with my wrapping. Even on a budget you can craft a stunning presentation. Sure, there’s definitely a time and place for the cheap rolls of wrapping paper you know will just be ripped into–and my kids usually get just that–but for a special friend I like to put a little more time into it. Just a simple way to reaffirm I care.

This year’s gifts will be topped with some some cute, cute, vintagey charm ’cause and [in my humble opinion] it’s better than just slapping on a generic sticky cartoon Santa from Walmart. But do whatever you want. I won’t judge .

First, download Vintage Christmas Printables (available until Dec. 13th in our HUGE 12 Days of Christmas grab bag!! Now THAT’s budget friendly!).

In your photo editing program, open a new 8.5×11 document, place tag(s), and flatten.

Print on cardstock, matte photo paper, etc. I chose cardstock to give it a grainier, more vintage feel.

Now the tag is darling as is, but I wanted to make my tag a bit more special, so I trimmed it down to just the picture.

And since it’s a vintage image I wanted the tag to look old and tattered so I freehand cut a messy scalloped edge, adhered the vintage image to a scrap of textured cardstock, crumpled and scuffed with sandpaper, and then sent it through  my sewing machine.

Perfectly imperfect.

Attach with ribbon and other vintage charms to gifts, plates of cookies for your neighbors, etc.

So vintage-ly charming, and way better than those store bought Santa stickers, yeah?

(P.S. This gift wrapping was very budget friendly–I used kraft paper and a glittery sprig from the dollar store. And I made the silk flower. Tutorial on that coming soon!)

Stay tuned. . . tomorrow Kelleigh‘s making sugar scrub!