Mixed Media Holiday Gift Tags

It’s no secret that my creativity blooms around the holidays. It seems like the months of November and December I get very motivated and the creative thoughts start swirling through my head. I have a little obsession with gift tags. They are like little pieces of art. I still remember my favorite one as a child in the early ’80s, It was blue with a drawing of a Christmasy house with snow and it may have had glitter on it (I can’t recall for sure.) That drawing on that gift tag is still what I imagine a house during the holidays should look like. Except my house looks nothing like it. It’s funny how those things stick with you though.

This post contains affiliate links. Additionally I did receive some of the product for free, and some of it I purchased myself. All opinions are my own.

Earlier in the week I showed you how I use wired ribbon and solid colored paper for wrapping my gifts, here. If the beautiful ribbon tied into bows was the icing on the cake, then colorful gift tags are like the sprinkles. I must be hungry if I am using cake analogies.

The DecoArt Media line is awesome. I’m no mixed media artist, but I like to paint and get creative with paper. It seems like mixed media is about layers and this product line is perfect for layering. The paint is very fluid and the color is intense. I was able to play with it the first time back in May at a blog conference where we made artist trading cards and I was definitely impressed with these products.

Supplies~

• die cuts or paper cut-outs of holiday images (if you don’t have a cutting machine just grab a few of these holiday paper punches) I used 120 lb white cardstock.
• cut-outs of paper tags (or these tags)
• DecoArt Media Paint
• DecoArt Media Gloss Varnish
• DecoArt Media Liquid Glass
• paint brushes
• rubber brayer
• bubble wrap

Put some paint on a piece of scratch paper and roll the brayer through it to coat the brayer. Then roll on to the tag. The brayer will give the tag a watercolor type look. I do both sides of the tag since paint seems to seep under the edges anyhow. Be sure to wash off your brayer between colors.

I used bubble wrap as a stamp to add a layer of “texture” to some of my tags, in a way similar to a rubber stamp. I found it’s easiest to put the paint on a piece of glossy paper, like those advertisement postcards that come in the mail. The glossy paper doesn’t soak up the paint quite like the regular paper does.

Here I mixed gold and silver, so that both colors would show when the bubble wrap was stamped on the tag.

Decou-page™ Paper is really fun to put on these tags as well. I just cut pieces of it and stuck it on some of the tags. The gold stars are super festive!

Using a paintbrush, I painted some of my cut-outs. Aren’t those little dots on the reindeer’s antlers adorbs? On the green trees I used the brayer method that I used on the tags. I love the watercolor effect and I can’t seem to get enough of the Cobalt Teal and the Blue Green together.

Once all the paint dries then everything can be glued on. I really like it when the holiday cut-out hang a little bit off the tag. Particularly the reindeer. Once again, set them aside and let the glue dry. Then use a foam brush and coat the entire tag with the Glossy Varnish. Heck, use two coats to make it really shine. The varnish can make the cardstock curl a little bit. If that happens, once the varnish is dry, put the tags between two sheets of waxed paper and stick it inside a big book for a few hours.

This last part is my favorite. I used the Liquid Glass to embellish my embellishments. (I just wanted so say that!) The Liquid Glass adds a clear, glossy surface that is raised. I used it on the holly berries, the stars, points of the snowflakes and the reindeer’s nose and antler points. It’s fun and adds great texture to the tags.

Once dry and ready, add some gold thread or sparkly baker’s twine to tie your tags on your gifts!