55

Make Small Folded Jewelry Gift Tags from Christmas Cards

by Rena Klingenberg.

In this easy project, we’re going to cut out pictures from Christmas cards, and turn them into little jewelry-size folded gift tags.

I’ll show you how I made little gift tags from three different Christmas cards.

Supplies:

• A variety of Christmas cards (preferably used ones – this is a great way to recycle the ones you receive!).
• A ruler for measuring and marking your cut-outs.
• A pencil.
• Scissors or a paper cutter.

Christmas Card #1:

I’m going to make two little jewelry gift tags from the front of this Christmas card:

. . . and one gift tag from the back of it:

Here you can see that from the front of this Christmas card, I’ve cut out a piece that’s about the size of a business card:

Now when I fold that cut-out piece in half, it makes a nice little gift tag that has the deer on the front and trees on the back:

(the inside is blank white).

I made a second little folded gift tag from the remaining tree image on the front of this Christmas card; and a third little folded tag from the snowflake image on the back of the card:

Christmas Card #2:

First I’m going to make one little folded gift tag from the front of this Christmas card:

I’ve cut out the part of the picture that has the sledding boy and his dog:

When folded in half, this cut-out has the boy on the front of the little gift tag and the dog on the back of it:

Now, inside this Christmas card is another cute little image that would make a good gift tag:

So I use my ruler and pencil to measure and mark where I want to cut out this image:

. . . and when I cut it out and fold it in half, I’ve made this little gift tag from that image inside the card:

And to give you an idea of the size of all these little folded gift tags, here they are next to a small apple:

Christmas Card #3:

On this Christmas card, the design on the front didn’t have anything small enough to use for a folded gift tag.

But the message on the inside of this card was a good size for a tag, and the back of the Christmas card was blank behind the message (so the inside of the folded tag will be blank and white):

I measured and marked where I want to cut out this little holiday message:

. . . and when it’s cut out and folded, it makes a nice little gift tag with a holiday message on the front:

More Tips for Making
Small Folded Jewelry Gift Tags
from Christmas Cards:

• Where to get Christmas cards for making these little folded gift tags?

  This project is a great way to recycle Christmas cards that have been sent to you.

  You may also want to ask your friends – if they’re going to toss out the cards they receive this year, would they mind saving them for you to recycle them into jewelry gift tags instead?

  Or, if you want to work with cards that haven’t been written in, you can get a box of about 18 to 20 Christmas cards for $1 at a dollar store.

  Or you can stock up on deeply-discounted cards right after Christmas.

• Making these little folded gift tags in large quantities?

  This project is fun, but pretty time-consuming.

  So I wouldn’t necessarily want to make dozens of these little gift tags for a big show.

  Instead, I would make these for small-scale use – ike for giving your own personal jewelry gifts, or for sales situations where you expect to sell only a few pieces of jewelry.

• About the insides of these folded tags:

  When choosing what part of the Christmas card picture you want to cut out for making your little folded tag, always check first to see what would be on the other side of your cutout.

  You may want to be sure the inside of your folded tag will be completely blank, for the gift-giver to write a special message there.

• What kind of pen to use?

  I highly recommend using a fine-tip felt marker for writing inside these folded tags.

  Often one or both sides of a card have a slick finish that ballpoint pens can’t write on very well.