Mystery Gift Tags

Hi Friends!  This may be a last-minute idea for you to use--or maybe you can use it next Christmas.  This idea was born out of necessity many years ago.  When the CCH children were younger, they were so excited on Christmas morning, they would get up in the wee hours and look at their gifts under the tree.

The little rascals would look at their name tags and figure out what their gifts were before my Darling Husband and I even got out of bed!  It occurred to me after one of those mornings, if they did not know exactly which gifts were theirs, they wouldn't be able to do that.

The following Christmas, I purchased inexpensive foam stamps that had five different holiday motifs, stamped them on a piece of cardstock, and attached those to the gifts.  Not an actual name it sight!  That really puzzled the kids and a tradition was born.  In years' past, I have used stamps, colored ribbons, generic silhouettes, wrapping paper, etc. to tag their gifts.  Once in awhile, they will guess them right.  (If you have a big family, you'll have to make yourself a code, in case you forget!)

Little did I know, that it would become part of the Christmas morning fun, that they look forward to!

This year I used a tag-shaped paper punch on cardstock for the tags.  I knew I wanted a glitter design, so I freehanded these shapes on index cards (they were easier to cut, but didn't hold up really well).  I preferred the symmetrical shapes, so I could fold the cards and cut half out.  (It took me a couple of tries to get the deer.)

I then centered them on the tag and used craft paint (I opted to do it with paint instead of Mod Podge, because on my previous glitter projects, I discovered I would rather have a painted background in case the glitter didn't fully cover the intended spot) and a stencil brush then sprinkled the glitter on that.  Note:  It is better to REMOVE the stencil before you put the glitter on, otherwise you end up getting glitter on the brush and in the paint.  You can see I was over zealous on a couple of them and got glitter on the stencil. 

I had some Martha Stewart glitter, but also found these little pots in a 4-pack at Walmart for 97¢.  Usually, the kids don't see the tags before Christmas morning.  I told them I have not decided who will get which tag and one of the girls will get the moustache--you know--to "throw them off the scent!"  (Okay, I know a moustache isn't really Christmas-y, but they're all the rage and cute to boot!)

Also included, although totally unnecessarily, I purchased a pack of bakers' string from JoAnns and used it for ties.  Stinkin' cute, I'd say!