DIY Gift Tags
"If you want to change the world, go home and love your family."
-Mother Teresa
Today was officially the first day of three weeks of winter break. Three weeks. When Paul reminded me of this fact first thing this morning, there was a brief feeling of panic that got lodged in my chest followed by a slight flash of resentment that it would be business as usual for him because he would be at “work” and I would be trying to “work” here at home while adding cruise ship activity director, line cook, and security muscle to my list of duties. I feel a little guilty just typing this but I know I am not alone in this feeling. I’ve read the FB updates, and the blog posts. I’ve exchanged the knowing glances and the small talk in the checkout line. The sarcastic “YAY!, school holiday!" grins are the ties that bind us. It is always equal parts wonderful, chaos, and a little too long. Ri kicked off day 1 of 23 by doing all of her homework first thing. H started day 1 of 23 by getting herself dressed (for a tropical vacation) and running into our room at 6:00 a.m. exclaiming, “Mama, I have P.E. today so I wore my bike shorts under my dress so no one can peek at my undies." When I explained that it was Saturday AND the first day of winter break, she threw herself on the floor and sobbed. Ironically, she has a love/hate relationship with school so this could have gone either way. By 9:00 the girls were yelling at one another about glassware (we only have one cool glass) and lost bracelets and by 9:45, Paul went for a walk. Somehow (magician that I am), I got everyone around the art table for a family craft. Oh the power of art! No bickering or exasperated sighs. Just paint. Brush to paper and content makers. It was quiet enough to remember how lucky in love we all are.
Materials:
Avery shipping tags (you can get the fancy ones but we used these)
acrylic paint (you could also use tempera)
assorted scrap papers, hole punch for hole punched paper, and thread for collage
water
paper towels for dabbing brushes
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1. Mix paint – this is kind of the best part. Experiment. You can make a tint by adding white and a shade by adding black to your base colors. We played with both.
H made "unicorn hair" color
2. Paint your shipping tags in various colors. You want pretty saturated color so make sure to dab your brush with a paper towel after rinsing or your pigment will be diluted, not opaque.
3. Let your tags dry (we used acrylic paint so ours dried in 20 minutes).
4. While your tags are drying you can start to brainstorm your layout. We had a pile of papers and leftover odds and ends from this week’s craft sessions.
5. Once your tags have dried you can start assembling. When you are satisfied with your designs, glue them down and trim any overhanging paper.
We all loved how these turned out. H wanted to keep them and Ri wanted to add a tassel and turn them into bookmarks. If you make enough of them, you could string them on twine because they already have holes. I have a feeling that these are the kind of gift tags that will find forever homes and not be ditched in the trash.
Happy making!
xx
a.
