Stepped-Up Gift Packaging and DIY Gift Tags

Welcome back, crafty friends!

I'm doing a little happy dance over here today because I'm so excited to share today's project with you!

Several weeks ago, the owner at The Stamp Market very kindly sent me some new products from their October release to play with. I knew I wanted to step up some of the gift bags I had laying around in my stash, so I used some stamps and dies to create some fun gift tags and jazzed up some of those gift bags.

Here's the best part: All of this was SUPER easy to do, so you can easily recreate similar looks with products you probably already have on hand.




I began by cutting out some basic tag shapes using the Oblong Hexagon dies. I cut several from different shades of netural or light-colored cardstock in two sizes so that I could stack two on top of each other for more contrast and dimension. I went ahead and glued the smaller pieces on top of the larger pieces in several different sets so that I could have multiple gift labels. Even though I wasn't sure how many packages I was going to make, I knew I could always just store whatever I didn't use on this project for future gifts!

Using the Gift Giving Greeting stamp set, I stamped out several greetings on to my cut hexagon tag pieces and then set them aside.

I grabbed a few empty white gift bags from my stash and then put them into my MISTI and used the Jumbo Plaid Background stamp and the Painted Polka Dot Background stamp to create a stepped-up version of a white gift bag. Now we've got some color and interest on that bag!!



I repeated the same process with the kraft-colored bag, but because this bag had handles on it, I learned (by trial and error!), that it's better to stamp the background stamp on to a flat piece of cardstock first, then cut it down to your bag size, and glue it on to the front of your bag, rather than trying to stamp directly on to the bag. 

I also had some clear bags that I knew I wanted to use, so I also just took some scrap tissue paper that I had in my stash and lined my clear bags with that tissue paper to give a pop of color and visual interest.



They were still missing just a liiiiittle something, so I knew the perfect cherry on top of the gift bag sundae would be FLORALS!!! 

Several weeks ago I made a project using stamped and die cut images from the Petal Patch stamp set. The images I didn't use were set aside for a future project, so I decided to use them on these gift packages! I basically just glued them on to the tags in different places and then waited for them to dry.



When the completed tags were done, I adhered them on to my gift bags to finish them off!

I can't wait to use these gift bags, and they were so much fun to make. The added step of personalizing your gifts can make such a big impact! The Stamp Market blog is going to be FULL of inspiration over the next few days on crafting handmade gifts and putting a little bit more love into your holidays this year. Be sure to keep visiting the blog here for all the great ideas!

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out with me today!

Kelly



Inks Used:

Life of the Party Collection (Catherine Pooler)
Intense Black (Hero Arts)