Happy holidays! Are you already wrapping gifts? If you need some pretty gift tags, Leethal.net has provided some free printable gift tags featuring pretty watercolor images. Head on over to her site to grab the free printable files: [click here for free printable gift tags]

Looking for more free printables? Here are some you might enjoy:

• Free Printable Herb Jar Labels
• Free Printable Christmas Favor Box

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One of my favorite craft tools is the humble paper punch.  Oh how I love paper punches!  They are so much more versatile than some people give them credit for.  If you have a few basic punch shapes in your collection, you can create all kinds of other designs, like these super clever pencils by Amber at Damask Love.  They are great for teacher gifts, or anything school-related! [how to make pencil gift tags]

Project estimate:

• Paper punches, on hand or $3 and up
• Paper, on hand
• Glue, on hand

Total: Free and up!

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I’m usually way behind when it comes to holiday projects, madly crafting away at the eleventh hour in order to finish in time.  This year, however, I vow to start earlier and avoid those frantic, last-minute craft sessions!  That’s why I’ve already gotten into my Valentine’s Day projects for the year.  If you have the same issues with crafty time management skills, you too can benefit from my head start on projects with these printable doodle tags!  Originally drawn with a fine-tip Sharpie on pieces of a recycled paper bag, there are tons of ways you can use these tags!

What can you do with them besides use them as gift tags?  Combine a tag with a strip of washi tape for a simple card or to embellish an envelope and make it special in just a couple of minutes.  (I got this package of red envelopes on clearance after Christmas for half price – that’s just two pennies per envelope!  I love buying red Christmas stuff on clearance after the holidays and reusing it for Valentine’s Day!)  They would also work well in scrapbook layouts.

The tags have a jagged, deckle edge.  You can choose to cut just outside the deckle for a more rustic look and a little bit of white border, or cut inside the deckle edge to remove it for a cleaner look.

Download your tags below.  How do you plan to use them?  We would love to know!

The post Friday Freebie: Valentine’s Day Printable Doodle Tags appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Remember those heart-shaped luggage tags I picked up at Dollar Tree last month?  I was originally planning to do something for Valentine’s Day with them, so I tucked them away for storage.  I put them in an organizer with clear pockets hanging on my craft room wall, right next to a stack of little sheets of craft foam that I got at Dollar Tree months ago and have slowly been working my way through.

It was one of those ideas that came without even trying.  I was sitting on the craft room floor wrapping Christmas gifts, pondering how to dress up the packages a bit.  I was staring blankly into space, deep in thought, when my eyes came into focus on the luggage tags and the sheets of foam.  A little light bulb appeared above my head—gift tags that double as ornaments!  I got so excited about the idea that I ran to Dollar Tree and bought more luggage tags.  (My store has a  whole bunch of them in the school supplies section in several different shapes, sold in packs of two.)  In the end I made eight gift tag ornaments for under five bucks!

Project estimate:

• Luggage tags, 2 for $1
• Craft foam, on hand or $1
• Christmas table scatter, $1
• Glue, on hand
• Scissors, on hand
• Paper scraps, on hand

Total: $2 and up for two

First I had to cover up the centers  of the luggage tags.  To do this, cut corresponding shapes out of craft foam that are just larger to the area of the luggage tag you want to cover.

Glue the foam shapes to the luggage tags.

Next, glue a piece of table scatter to the center of each foam shape.  (I love this table scatter and I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy it.  But you can use anything you want here!)

On the back side, cut off that unsightly tag.  Does anyone really know what all of those regulation numbers mean anyway?  (It also says they are made in China…  So I would not recommend licking or eating your ornaments.)

Remove the information card from the luggage tag and use it as a template to cut the same shape out of a scrap of scrapbook paper.

Write your to and from information on the paper, as well as the year.  Slide the paper into the window pocket and you’re done!

I had a bunch of table scatter left over, so I used some of the glittery trees to decorate a plain silver cardboard canister.  I also wanted to convey the silliness of the gift that’s inside this package, so instead of using a ribbon, I tied it up with some pom pom garland that I also found at Dollar Tree.

You can also make these into keepsake ornaments by attaching photos to the fronts instead of table scatter.  Use them to tag gifts for grandparents, or if you have young children, attach photos corresponding to the recipients of the gifts so they can help pass out the presents on Christmas morning!

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Happy Evil holidays, everyone! All right, I admit it, I’m a geek.  When I saw these stamped Cthulhu Christmas cards from Giggedy Geekmum, I squealed just a little, and the geeky little voice in the back of my head said, “No freakin’ way!” If you aren’t familar with the green, tentacle-faced being, he is a creation of sci fi author H.P. Lovecraft and is often referenced in pop culture when speaking of extreme evil.  (My favorite of Geekmum’s card captions is, “Looks like *someone* was naughty!”)  Using an ingenious technique, Geekmum created her own Cthulhu stamp, enabling her to crank out a lot of cards in just a little time!  Don’t send cards?  Use them as gift tags instead!  [how to make stamped Cthulhu Christmas cards]

Project estimate:

• Cardboard, on hand
• Toilet paper tube, on hand
• Glue, on hand
• Paper, on hand
• Acrylic paint, on hand or $1 and up
• Marker, on hand
• Cotton balls or rounds, on hand or $1

Total: Free and up

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I dollar store craft-ized the traditional advent calendar by using a place mat for the calendar base, and paper gift tags for the ornaments. I’ve made several advent calendars in my lifetime, all in this same basic category: the picture up top, the numbered pockets below, and “ornaments” for each day to hang up on the top.

Project Estimate:

• Place mat, $1
• 2 or 3 sheets of felt, $.25 each
• 1 package of chipboard gift tags, $1
• Craft glue (I used Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue), on hand
• Safety pins, straight pins, velcro, or diaper tabs, optional
• Sewing machine
• Dowel and ribbon for hanging, optional
• Printed out template (optional) – download here

Total cost: $2.75 and up

Time needed: about an hour

The place mat will help simplify the construction process, but you’ll still have to cut out the numbers. I tried really hard to think of a way to circumvent the seemingly tedious number cutting-out process, but when it came down to it, nothing worked for me. I timed myself, though, and it only took me 20 minutes to cut all the numbers out, so it’s not THAT bad. I’ll give you my tips for cutting them out a little later.

If you really don’t want to cut out the numbers, alternate suggestions are:

• Cut out the numbers with your die-cutter (if you have one… I don’t!) or call your local scrapbooking store to see if they can do it for you (or maybe a friend?)
• Find ready-made numbers to glue on your calendar. (I didn’t find anything suitable at my dollar store, but maybe you’ll be luckier or have more ingenuity).
• Paint the numbers on with acrylic paint or fabric paint.
• Stencil the numbers with ready-made stencils or freezer paper stencils.
• Omit the numbers altogether — you will still get a visual idea of how close you’re getting to Christmas as the ornaments disappear from the pockets.

Here’s my thinking on the paper gift tags: use them this year to make the project quickly before December 1st rolls around, and then after the holidays when you’re in your post-Christmas crafting lull, make some higher-quality ornaments to use on the calendar next year. Sound like a plan to you? If not, my other suggestion for making quickie ornaments is to string a stash button on a ribbon or string for each day. That sounds pretty cute!

To Make:

Cut out a paper template for the pockets. I cut a sheet of construction paper (same size as a piece of felt) in four strips, lengthwise to get a visual of how much space I’d have left for my tree. I made the tree kind of short and wide to fit on my available space. Here’s a tree template if you want it.

Cut out the four strips of felt and the felt tree.

Sewing the Pockets:

Sew the felt strips onto the place mat. I sewed one edge of each strip first, then across the bottom of each, then the other edge. Then I sewed across all the strips of felt to form the pockets (starting from the bottom of the placemat). You want six pockets on each strip of felt, so you’ll sew across the felt strips five times to create the pockets. You can eyeball it, or mark it off with chalk before you sew (suggested, but I didn’t do this because I’m not sure where my chalk is). If you eyeball it, sew the center line first and work your way out from there. The pockets are going to be approximately 2-1/4″ tall by 2″ wide.

After you’re done with the pockets, sew the Christmas tree on the top.

Cutting the Numbers – the 20 minute method:

You’ll need numbers in the following quantities:

• Ones: 13
• Twos: 8
• Threes and Fours: 3 each
• Fives, Sixes, Sevens, Eights, Nines, Zeroes: 2 each

I suggest cutting out all of the like numbers at once; all the twos at one time, etc.

To cut the numbers, cut a long strip of felt approximately 1-1/4″ tall.

• For the ones: cut a narrow strip about 1/2″ wide (it looks like a one – ha ha!)
• For the rest of the numbers, cut the strip into rectangular pieces (each about 3/4″ wide). I like to cut the necessary number of rectangles for each set of numbers, so I can just cut without counting. (Like, I’d cut eight rectangles out, cut all my twos, and then move on and cut more rectangles for the next set of numbers).

• Cut out the necessary parts to make the number. (On my number templates, the black parts are the parts you cut away from the rectangle).
• To cut out the center circles, make a small cut where the circle should be, and widen the circle from there.
• Hint: 2’s are the same as 5’s (just upside-down and backward) and 6’s are the same as 9’s (just upside-down)

Click here to download the template

Glue the numbers onto the pockets with craft or fabric glue.

To Hang the Ornaments:

You will want to attach some sort of hanging apparatus for each ornament. Use whatever you like or have on hand.

• Safety pins: tie a string or ribbon to the ornament, and attach a safety pin
• Straight pins
• Velcro (scratchy side) or disposable diaper tabs (they work like Velcro!), glue onto back of ornament

If you want to attach a dowel for hanging, you can either make several ribbon loops on the top of the place mat, and run the dowel through the loops. Alternately, you can use a 1″ piece of ribbon and sew it on the top back of the place mat for a casing for the dowel. Tie ribbon or cord to the ends of the dowel to make a hanger.

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