DIY Gift Tags

I work for a company that makes wireless radios and we do most of the manufacturing in house. I’m always scoping out the supplies and things they throw away to see if I have any use for them…we all know I love turning trash into treasure!

One of the items I typically grab is these thin cardboard sheets that come separating several of our manufacturing parts. I’ve used them as the base for my book wreaths, for the backs of my burlap rosettes and often use them to protect the table from the hot glue gun, paint, etc. They’re thicker than card stock but not too thick where you can’t cut them easily with scissors so they’re perfect for a lot of uses.

The other day I was putting a gift in a bag and needed a gift tag. I normally would have just skipped the tag if I didn’t have one on-hand but I got the great idea to make one out of this thin cardboard. I used a 2.5″ circle punch for that tag but it got my thinking…I have access to this cardboard for free, why not make up a stock of custom gift tags out of it! I’ve seen the natural gift tag look a lot of places so now I can just make my own for practically free (if you have paint pens already).

I started by cutting out tag shapes. Each piece of cardboard made 15 tags! I took my thin white paint pen and started doodling. The great thing is if one doesn’t look great, I just throw it away! My only complaint is I had to go over it a couple times with the paint pen because it would soak into the cardboard and wasn’t as white as I wanted it.

I decided to paint some of the tags with some chalkboard paint. Chalkboard tags are great for gifts or labeling things in the house! I painted the front and back of the tags and let them dry (luckily chalkboard paint dries super quickly). I love the chalkboard decor but honestly hate writing with chalk. It’s hard for me to write with and have full control of how it goes on which means my handwriting with chalk is NOT CUTE AT ALL and definitely not something you’d want to give away or display. I picked up some Craft Smart chalk markers at Michael’s the other day so this was the perfect time to give them a try. I LOVE this marker. It went on bright white and was so easy to write with. I have yet to try to “erase” since I used them on tags, but apparently you can erase it off of chalkboards so I’ll be trying that out soon! I’m now actually excited to try more chalkboard ideas now that I have found these markers!

I keep coming up with new ideas to try so I’m sure I’ll be making more tags soon but here is my DIY gift tag stock so far!