Paper Craft - Christmas Gift Tags...

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

My daughter and I thought it would be fun to make our own gift tags for our Christmas packages this year! Last weekend we gathered all our supplies, sat at the table, cut out tags and stamped away! It was so nice and such a good time just to chat and create. My daughter is 7 years old and LOVES anything crafty. I made sure we made very simple tags so we could concentrate on the 'togetherness' and creativity instead of stressing over the perfect overdone commercial-looking gift tag - and trust me, if you know me, you know how difficult it was not to let my OCD tendencies take over and turn the craft into a commercially, glittery, overdone, STRESSED OUT, mess that was no fun in the end for me or my daughter! I tend to like things, um...perfect, but I am learning to see the perfection even in the flaws. It is more important now that I am the keeper of these two little beings that I concentrate on the moment, the memory, and not the 'thing' we are working on! And you know what? I LOVE our little tags we made!
I found these great clear stamps from the Martha Stewart line in the scrapbooking section of Wal-Mart no less! We found the paper, stamping ink, acrylic blocks to mount the stamps, ribbon and cord all at Hobby Lobby.

We had fun cutting out decorative little snowball shapes with my craft scissors. My daughter picked to stamp the silver snow flakes and blue Joy on these then we punched the hole and used a blue glittery cord to attach to the tag.
We stamped 'To' and 'From' on the back.

Then we worked on these cute stamps with a red Merry Christmas and red cardinals. Then stamped a green 'To' and 'From' on the inside and tied with red glittery cord.

Onto our Noel tags with a silver dove and tied with the glittery blue cord. We stamped the 'To' and 'From' in blue.

Then the gold reindeer and green pine tree tied with glittery green cord and stamped with a green 'To' and 'From' on the other side.
Here are the finished cards! We have four different types and we made ten each. This was such a fun project to do with my daughter. I am so glad I chose not to 'go overboard' and instead practice what this season is really all about...not about 'things' but about moments - times spent with loved ones and special memories made.

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

(I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. It was late when we finished so we had no natural light! I hope they show up somewhat!)

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