gift tag no.1

As predicted Halloween was a lot of fun. We didn't venture too far because one of the little ones in our group was a little tired - he's only 2. But the kids were excited because there was plenty of candy to go around. When we got back, we sat in our neighbor's driveway with people from other neighboring homes and we all gave candy away in what we called a candy buffet. Those that came by got treated to candy from 5 different families so it was a great big stop for them and the kids had a lot of fun giving the candy away themselves. Thank goodness we gave away every last piece of it. I don't need that temptation around here!

Can you believe it's November already? I honestly don't know what happened to October. It just flew by. I went to the grocery store yesterday and it's already decked out in holiday decorations (yikes!). It made me think that I'd like to come up with some projects for the next few weeks that are quick and easy and that could be useful for this season. Inspired by the new Craft cover (different gift wrap ideas) and my tag feature I thought I'd explore different options for gift tags.

My style tends to be in the "less is more" category so you'll see that these ideas will follow that theme. My hope is that these can be springboards for you to embellish to your own taste and inspire other ideas too.

On to the project - When going to a party or holiday event haven't you ever had a beautiful bow/decoration that just gets crushed under the weight of another gift that someone stacks on top? Argh! This idea is a solution to that and it's super easy to make.

Materials:
- One wide red strip of paper (2.5" wide - length depends on the box)
- One thin red strip of paper (1/4" x 4.5")
- One white card (2" x 4")
- Hole punch (I used a rectangle shape in this case)
- Double-sided tape (or glue stick)

I wrapped a box with packaging paper to use for all these upcoming gift tag ideas. I love this paper because of it's slight texture, color (it makes the brighter ones pop) and the fact that it's recycled. I'll specially be using it for these projects so the focus is on the tags.

I used the tape to attach the wide strip of paper to the box. I centered it on the front of the box and it wraps around to only the half of the back. The back looks just like the front.



I punched four holes in my white card and threaded the thin red strip of paper through the card and cut the tips of the strip on a diagonal. I attached the card to the box with tape and centered it in the top area of the red wide strip.



Voila! A simple pretty gift that won't get ruined. :)