Christmas Gift Tags

Each year while I'm putting away the Christmas decorations, I take a little time to once more look over the Christmas cards I received and think of the special people who mailed them.

Then I recycle those cards into gift tags for the following Christmas.

This process used to take an entire afternoon. I'd get out my stencils and find just the right size and shape to get the most out of each image on the cards. I'd use scissors with fancy blades to make the edges of the tags sculptural.

Last year, however, I bought myself a tag punch. Now the process is a snap! It goes very quickly and the tags are more uniform. I have the Fiskars punch model #1335 to make the tags. They create a tag that's about 2-1/4" tall and 1-1/2" wide.

I used a regular-sized hole punch in the tab, then a piece of crochet cotton for the string.

This year's cards made for a nice little stack of gift tags, all ready for next year. I store them with the Christmas wrapping paper (in a hanging garment bag!) so they're easy to find when I need them.