Handmade Hang Tag Tutorial

I've received so many supportive comments on my last post and these hang tags, that I thought I would share my method and show you how I make them!

As I've mentioned before, these came as a result of my hoarding saving so many supplies. About a year ago, when I started thinking about using up some of my horde, I started printing my own business cards after I ran out of commercially printed cards. I also had 2 large beautiful reams of very heavy cardstock I had purchased for projects and cards when I worked at a print shop many years ago.

{SIDE NOTE: Most of these photos have text, so click on them to make them larger.}

Here, you can see the original letter sized piece of paper and the cards (already cut). This is how they look after I print them. Before I trim them to business card size, you can see that there are going to be left over strips from the printing margins and design of the cards.

This is what I'm leftover with after the cards are cut. I decided to save all these strips and they have been lying around the studio taking up space waiting for a creative use......HANG TAGS!!!!!

I decided I wanted my tags to have an antiqued look, so I decided to stain them even darker than the camel color they are. These particular strips were dyed with a strong tea stain, but you can also use diluted walnut ink, a light acrylic paint wash, diluted water colors or stamp pads for a different look.

Next, I trim my strips to their desired lengths. Most of my strips were 7" in length so I just decided to trim them in half to 3.5". Once folded in half, they measure 1.75" and have different surfaces for writing.

......Here's a little closer.

Next, you'll need a stamp for the front. You could have a custom stamp professionally made and that would be ideal! Since I'm being frugal, I had this address stamp from VistaPrint that I've never been particularly fond of, so I decided to make it a test subject.

I carefully peeled off the stamp from it's self-inking base, trimmed the address part off, and adhered it to an acrylic stamp block. The remaining adhesive was enough to keep it stuck and I'll be able to remove it later.

If you don't have an acrylic stamping block (although I recommend it to easily see the placement when you're stamping) you could also use the lid of your stamp pad, or the wooden top of a regular rubber stamp. Even the smooth bottom of a drink glass will work!

Next, I used watercolor to make a small dot that mimics the hole reinforcements of traditional tags. I don't concern myself that they are perfectly round. I prefer the random shape. After my watercolor dried, I stamped my tags!

Next, I punched my holes with a 1/8" craft punch. Then I cut thin string and attached them to my tags! DONE!

Here's a tag attached to a bracelet. I use the inside of the tag to write information about the piece and I use the back of the tag to write the price. I like this because I don't like to see the price and my handwriting on the front. I also feel, in a show or shop setting, that this invites the customer to pick the piece up and learn more about it and feel it in their hands.

I hope you will give this a try! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

If you make your own hang tags, I would love to see pictures!