After the wave of recipes and food related posts, time to return to some DIY. I believe we have the majority of our gifts purchased already, and that means… wrapping time! And isn’t it nice to make our gift wrapping a bit more personalized? We can achieve that by making cute little personalized Christmas gift tags ourselves!

The technique I used is called quilling. It’s an art created by swirling narrow strips of paper, forming shapes out of them, and then arranging them into greater shapes or images. There are a lot of fancy tools and supplies available for those interested in quilling, but if you’d like to take your first steps in that niche I will recommend starting with only 3 extremely cheap, basic ones:

• paper strips – 260 for $1.16
• craft glue – any glue for papercrafts
• quilling tool – $0.39

Alternatively:

• quilling starter kit – 260 paper strips, various moulds, pins, tweezers, quilling tool (and more) – $12.53

The links above are from Aliexpress – the place I swear by when it comes to crafting supplies. The “starter kit” actually contains pretty much all of the quilling tools available in the market and if you’re sure you’d like to dabble in quilling a bit more, this will give you everything you need to achieve any quilling goals. And it comes with 260 paper strips too – just think how many gift tags you could make with them. Hundreds! I realize that if you were to order the tools on Aliexpress now, they would most likely come to you around Easter. But overall, if you’re not under any time pressure and don’t mind waiting a bit, I strongly recommend getting craft supplies there. They are, in many cases, the exact same items you’ll find in local craft stores. For about a fifth of the price!

I also got my plain gift tags on Aliexpress (300 pieces for $4.54). Though they’re not needed to make beautiful gift tags, any cut out piece of thick paper will do. 😉

Anyway, let’s leave the theory about quilling for another post. And now, let’s have a look at the handmade Christmas gift tags I’ve prepared this year (so far).

1. Pile of presents

2. Christmas tree

3. Candy cane

4. Holly 

5. String of lights

6. Reindeer

7. Presents on the sleigh

I hope this gives you some inspirations!

Merry Christmas everyone, and Merry Gift Wrapping! 🙂 Let me know which design is your favourite or if you have other suggestions and recommendations.

• Christmas
• DIY