Hey guys! I know it’s been a little sparse around here–May was so busy! But I’ve got tons of DIYs and home decor stuff coming down the pipeline for you! Woot! I’m sharing a different kind of wrap tip this week for Wrap It Wednesday—DIY watercolor gift tags! Make a bunch and have them on hand for quick gifts—put them on a wine bottle, add them to a simple kraft paper gift, or add to a gift bag to take it up a notch.
Backstory: I needed to wrap a Seattle Mariners baseball baby gift in Mariners colors. Naturally. But it proved harder to do than I thought. Months ago I had played around with watercolor and painted a bunch of sheets that were just hangin’ around. I came across the stack a few days ago and a few of the sheets matched the Mariners colors perfectly! So I made a bunch of gift tags and added them to a simple gift bag (look for that in next week’s Wrap It Wednesday feature!). Easy peasy.
Materials
- Watercolor paper (I love this kind from Target—affordable but also awesomely thick!)
- Watercolor (check out this affordable set from Joann)
- Paintbrush
- Gift tag template
- Scissors
- Twine or ribbon
- 1/8” hole punch, Joann
Basic Idea
Play around and paint some random designs in your desired colors on the watercolor sheets. Don’t worry about screwing up! These tags will look pretty no matter what. Try lines, dots, squiggles, coloring the whole sheet—there’s no wrong way to do it. I cut my watercolor sheets in half to make them go a bit further and to allow more designs for the tags.
Print the gift tag template. You can use this one if you have Microsoft Word, and resize it to any size that works for your gift. If you don’t have Word, just Google “Gift tag template Photoshop” or Illustrator or PDF and a lot of possibilities will pop up.
Cut out the template and punch a hole in the specified place. Trace the template onto the back of the watercolor paper. If you doodled around on your watercolor paper, you shouldn’t need to worry about placement of the template—they will all look beautiful! Mark where the hole should be punched with your pencil.
Cut out tags and punch a hole with the hole punch. (Note: if you have a cutting machine, you could design everything and cut a bunch that way! Alas, I don’t–yet)
String with jute or baker’s twine or ribbon and add to your package! It would be easy to make a pile of tags so that they’re ready when you need one for a last-minute gift!
I love the way they turned out—the color is vibrant and they’re so simple to create! And I’m telling you, watercolor is so fun! Sort of similar to coloring, except you have more freedom.
Love all things wrapping? Check out the Wrapping Tips page and follow my Gift Wrap board on Pinterest—it’s full of cute and pretty ideas from all over the blogosphere.
