Wednesday, August 04, 2010

DIY Hang Tags (on a budget!)


I have been brainstorming ideas for making professional looking hang tags to use locally during the upcoming craft show season. Up until now I had been using a business card with a regular hole punch, but the cards are big and get in the way and it just seemed a bit too amateur. Using items I already had, a little graphic design work & elbow grease I was able to come up with a classy hang tag that I think looks pretty sweet!



You will need two craft punches for making your hang tags. I used the "Extra Jumbo Marvy" 1.5" scalloped circle for the tag and a quarter sized hole punch for the string. Both were purchased from Michaels using the weekly 50% off coupons. These go on sale all the time too - don't pay full price for them! You can use whatever shape or size you like as long as it is no bigger than 1.75" wide and 2" tall.


Here's where the graphic design comes in. I used Vista Print and waited for a premium business card sale with free uploads. Trust me, if you sign up for their mailing list you won't have to wait very long! I get multiple free offers from them every week.

I used the "design your own business card" option, uploaded the background image from my blog and laid out the text boxes so I had two identical graphics on each side of the card. You will need to play around with this a bit - and it helps to have a business card in front of you with the holes punched out so you will have an idea where your borders will be. I was a bit worried that my 6 pt font would be too small to read but it turned out beautifully.

Of course you can use any printing company that you like but you can't go wrong with 250 cards for free + $10 shipping. That's 500 hang tags! Just be careful during your check out that you don't select any of their optional add ons. It ends up being cheaper to wait and order more items from their next promotional email.


And then the elbow grease. This is the least fun part of making your own hang tags but it's also kind of satisfying. I removed the plastic bottom from my Marvy stamp at first so I could make sure I was punching each card in the correct spot. After a while I was able to tell just by looking at the side of the stamp if the card was lined up in the correct spot.


Once my cards were stamped out I used my mini hole punch on them. A regular sized punch would work too but the smaller size looks cleaner to me.

Finally, I used embroidery floss to hang the tags from my purses. Floss comes in hundreds of colors so you can pick out the perfect shade to compliment your hang tags or your items.

I'm still not sure yet if I'm going to attach them to the inside of my purses with little safety pins or if I should just loop them around the buttons and snaps of my items. What do you think?

I'd love to see your tags if you try this method - if you already use the method - or if you purchase premade tags!

14 comments:

Tia Colleen said...

They look wonderful!!

kellie said...

beautiful.

Kitty said...

i think you should loop/tie them onto the buttons and zipper pulls, so they're visible on the outside of your items.

and i just did something very similar for my jewelry tins! :D
(tada! http://twitpic.com/2bbdte , you can see my earring cards in there too. they're on the right side of the photo.)

--yobo

Anika said...

Love it! Great idea!!

Anonymous said...

loved the idea! and already bought one for me!!!

Unknown said...

These look great! I'll have to try the craft punches! Thanks for sharing this tutorial!

Sabra Allsbrook said...

This is an amazing story! really this blog found me very interesting and informative.... I'm very happy to be visiting your blog. Great Work.... Thanks for your sharing, I will pay more attentions to your blog.

houston boutique hotels

izan baharuddin said...

cool ideas

Gloria Urech said...

Great idea, love it!!

Unknown said...

So nice of you to share. Thank you.

John Smith said...

Great idea, thanks for sharing with us.
Hang Tags Printing

amelia said...

Smart

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Print247365 said...

Hang Tags Printing Services - We are one of the leading company that offer affordable and high quality hang tags in USA. Hang tags is one of the best way to promote a business in a simple and effective way. We provide various kinds of promotional hang tags.