Making
your own grubby hang tags are a fun way to create whimsical
yet add a personal touch to any gift or jar gift. These are
also enjoyable to make at the same time.
Here’s
how to make them. Take some cardstock, white, off white or
any color you wish. Make some strong tea or coffee and let
it cool to room temperature. Cut or tear your cardstock in
the shape and size you want. Decide before hand if you plan
to use a printer to print on it afterwards, or if you’ll be
drawing by hand. You can also use the scrapbooking
decorative scissors to make certain shaped edges it you’d
like. You’ll also want to decide if it’ll be a single side,
double sided, or folded hang tag.
After you
have determined the size and shape of the hang tag, take a
paintbrush and lightly paint the coffee or tea on the first
side of the paper. Set it on waxed paper and allow it to
dry (make take overnight). Once dry, turn over the other
side and repeat. Another method that can be used is to
paint the coffee or tea only on the outer edges of the
cardstock area, or in a particular pattern.
Once the
cardstock is dried on both sides you’re ready to begin the
rest of the grubby hang tag. If you’re using a printer,
simply print the picture you desire on the card. If doing
this by hand, extra fine tip black Sharpie markers work
great for primitive look hang tags. One thing nice about
the prim look is that it’s difficult to mess up. Start with
the wording on the hang tag that you want. It’s advisable
to work on what you want to say while your cardstock is
drying. Do a practice run first on a similar sized scrap
paper to get a better feel of the size and spacing of the
wording. A quick way to make your writing look primitive is
by adding a small dot at each ending and beginning point of
each letter.
If your
grubby hang tag is too plain by now you can either hand draw
some type of border around the outside of the wording, or a
small drawing of a country item somewhere on the primitive
hang tag. Some items that are popular are bows, ivy, plants
in a planter, a farm animal, a country jar, a star, snowmen,
mittens, garden tools etc. Again, a rustic primitive look
is very forgiving, even for the person who can’t necessarily
draw otherwise.
Use a
hole punch to punch a small hole in the corner and either
jute string or raffia or some other type of primitive
material to tie a knot to attach to the gift. These are
really cute on gifts in a jar as
well. Experiment with the look and have fun!
