Hi! I'm Kelli Crowe and my tree has been up since November 6th. I like Christmas. A lot. I like pretty much everything about it. And because I enjoy it all so much, I get started really early on the preparations.
One thing I like to do is to make the gift tags for my presents. I don't make all of them, just however many I feel like. (It should feel like fun and when it stops feeling fun, I stop making them.) This year I decided to get my boys involved.
Supplies: I used big and small tags purchased at Staples Any ink pads I had around from scrapbooking or crafting A fine point sharpie Ed Emberley's Complete Fun Print Drawing Book (I already owned this and just used it as initial inspiration) Googlie eyes glue
At first they were tentative about what I wanted. I let them experiment a little, flip through the book, etc. I also got lots more cooperation because we did this in place of a few chores. They were much happier to make a few tags instead of unloading the dish washer.
This is Max, who is very much a ham and likes to show off his new braces. He made his first tag, a flower, following the directions in the book.
And here is the tag in action on a gift for Grandma. (I should note here, I do not buy Christmas wrapping paper. My tastes change too much to buy paper that just sits around from year to year. I wrap all gifts, all year, in the same bright and fun papers I love. So yes, this floral yellow paper is on a Christmas gift!)
Max liked making tags for specific people. This one he made for his cousin. But then he misspelled "awesome." We just cut the words off the bottom and added a mini tag to go with it. These will both tie nicely on the top of his cousin's gift.
Max had a lot of fun free-styling the rest of his tags. I love the Christmas tree one he did for Grandpa. I gave him the tree idea, but he figured out how to make it.
Knowing my relatives, they will just add a hook to some of these and turn them into ornaments or put them into a scrapbook.
The collection that Alex made. They remind me so much of his personality.
Oh, that is not a Christmas Clam, as I first thought upon seeing it. It is the bow on top of a present.
Even though not everyone was keen on having their photos taken, I did manage to snap a few. So now I have handmade tags AND photos of the kids making them! I mean, I feel a scrapbook page coming on!
My oldest, David. He was having a kinda Snape sort of hair day and was sent to the showers right after this project. He loves to draw and really was proud of his cute little tag people.
All of his people tags. I will probably just write the person's name on the back of these tags. I think the front is perfect.
I ended up with a nice little batch of tags. The relatives will love them and keep them. I get credit for being such "clever mom." Don't write on the thumb prints until they are totally dry or it will ruin your pen. (The kids just blew on them a little bit) We used wipes to try and clean off their fingers to avoid accidental smudges. They used different fingers, even after they were cleaned, when changing stamp pads to keep from staining the pads. Know your audience: I put this task in place of another one. I also kept reminding them we had music lessons and they didn't have forever to work on these. That was true. But it took away the all too common question I hear when giving my boys a task, "How long do we have to do this." Thanks for taking the time to look at our fun little Christmas Tradition of making our gift tags. And thank you, Debby, for including me in your crafts this year! You can find more of me, probably more than you would ever want, at: kellicrowe
Kelli Crowe
kellicrowe blog
I really want to do this with my grandkids. It would be great to have custom tags from my grandkids on the presents this year. Thank you Kelli!
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joybear 8:25 PM
Have a Wonderful Crafty Holiday!














