Recently, my printer broke. I panicked. I thought, “Whatever will I do for tags for my jewelry?”
This is what I did:
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- I mark a grid on stiff paper; I like the Moo Cards size, 22 x 70cm.
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- Accurate measurements are important in any project; look at the ruler markings from directly above. A T-Square is a big help in drawing parallel lines.
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- Now I use markers and paint to put on a textured background. I used a sponge, but a crumpled napkin works, too.
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- If I need to reinforce my lines, I do it now. Then I write my shop name in each space, trying out different pens and pencils
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- If you don’t want your paper to curl, you can tape it down on all edges while you’re painting on it, and let it dry that way. Or, you can iron it afterwards. Be sure to put paper down under it, and iron on the back side! (Or you may get paint on the ironing board or iron)
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- Trying a different background
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- Cutting out the tags carefully on a cutting surface with a pen knife and ruler; the lines are much cleaner than with scissors, even if you have a steady hand.
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- Strips of tags, ready to be separated into individuals…
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- For which I do use scissors, since it is a very short line (hard to mess up), and cutting this way will save a lot of time.
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- I have punched holes in my tags using a small hole punch.
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- Now I can write my website and e-mail address on the back. There. Tags!
It took about 2 1/2 hours to make 58 tags. I did not finish writing my info on all the tags; that’ll take another half-hour I suspect.
Tags could also be cut from old greeting cards, and various cardboard packaging can be painted over in this way. I saw this as an exercise in resourcefulness. If you don’t have a hole punch, another option is to thread some embroidery thread through a big needle, and pierce the tag, inserting the tie that way.
