Jan's Library

Make Your Own Christmas Gift Tags

By: Jan K., The Proofer

You can make your own Christmas Gift Tags! You can personalize them, or make gift tags that match the theme of your Christmas gift bags! This article will provide the instructions for using business cards and the free graphics that come with Microsoft Word to create great gift tags!

You can create your own, using these instructions, or you can use the free gift tags that are provided with this article. The link to the free gift tags is shown at the end of the article.

I've done an illustrated tutorial that will show you exactly what to do! So, before you go any further, go to the illustrated instructions:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/makechristmasgifttags.doc

The instructions will open in a new window for your convenience. These instructions contain several pictures, so it might take several (long) seconds for the page to open. Once the page does open, then allow a few extra seconds for all the pictures to appear.

This tutorial will help you to create your own Christmas gift tags using business cards and the free graphics (called “clipart”) that come with Microsoft Word. It is possible that the screen views shown in the tutorial do not exactly match your computer screen due to differences in the word processing software version that you are using. However, with very little experimentation (that is, clicking on things and hunting around drop-down menus), you should be able to follow along perfectly well.

1. Open a new Word document (that is, a blank document). On the toolbar, go to Tools, and then Envelopes and Labels.

2. Click on the Options button.

3. Look for the Avery template number on the package of business cards that you have purchased. Almost all brands of business cards, even store brands, will provide the compatible Avery template. Sometimes this number is on the front of the package, sometimes on the back---you’ll just have to look for it. For the purposes of this tutorial, the Avery template number is 8371. In the “Product number” box, scroll down until you find that number, can select it (click on it). And then click OK.

4. Now click on New Document. This will create a page of “blank” business cards.

5. You now have a Word document that is probably titled as LabelsX (where X is a number, possibly 1; however, in this tutorial it created Labels3).

6. Although it may be hard for you to “see” the blank business cards, this page is nor formatted to create 10 business cards (5 rows of two cards each). It might be helpful for you to change this document to Print Layout so that you can better visualize where the business cards are on the document. Go to View and select Print Layout.

7. Now you can see the ruler along the top and down the left-hand side of the screen. You can now see where the business cards begin and end.

8. Before you go any further, you should do a “Save As” to name the file and save it to My Documents (or wherever it is you would like to save this file). For this tutorial, the file has been named ChristmasLabels and it was saved to a folder named Christmas in My Documents.

9. Now you are ready to start inserting Christmas graphics into the blank business cards! Go to Insert, Picture, Clip Art.

10. Type in Christmas in the “Search for clips” field to search for the graphics that are available, and hit Enter.

11. You will be shown a variety of pictures. When you find a picture that you would like to use, click on it, and hit the top icon (you should get a small pop-up that says “insert clip” (or something similar).

12. That picture will now be inserted in the first blank business card. (Note: You may have to close the clipart window in order to see it). You might be prompted to insert a disk when you click on the “insert clip” icon. Don’t panic! This simply means that the clipart hasn’t actually been installed on your computer. Got to step 13 for further instructions if you have to insert a disk.

13. Locate that disk (it should be with the original installation disks that came with your computer). Insert the disk in your CD disk drive. You might have to wait a few moments for the disk to load. Hit the “Retry” button on the pop-up window, and the picture will be inserted.

14. You’ve now got one picture on the first blank business card! You have several options at this point. You can simply “copy” this picture and insert it 9 more times, or you can insert different pictures by repeating steps 9 to 12, and look for other pictures that you want to use. If you want the same picture on all the gift cards, then right click on the picture, and select Copy.

15. Click in the blank business card to the right, and paste in the picture. Go to Edit, and select Paste. (You can also use CTL+V, if you are familiar with using the hotkeys.)

16. Now the picture is in the first two blank business cards. Simply repeat steps 14 and 15 8 more times to create an entire page of Christmas gift tags.

17. Before you print on the actual business cards, you might want to print a “test” page and then use the handy Practice Sheet that comes with the business cards (put the sample printed page on top of the Practice Sheet and hold it up to a light; the pictures on your sample page should line up with each business card).

18. Insert a sheet of blank business cards into your printer. Print one copy of the Christmas Gift Tags. You can print as many Gift Tags as needed.

Congratulations! You’ve made your own Christmas gift tags! You can save your gift tags, and print them again and again---or you can make new ones each year! You can also use this same method to make gift tags for any occasion!

But…just in case you are completely frustrated and things haven’t gone well while following this tutorial, you can get this page of Christmas gift tags at:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/ChristmasLabels.doc

 or

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/christmaslabels1.doc

Simply open the page, then follow step 8 to do a “Save As” to save it to your computer. Use business cards that are compatible with Avery 8371---and print as many as you’d like!

For more information about working with pictures on business cards, how to change the size of the picture and how to add text, please see my tutorial, How To Make Gift Tags Using Business Cards, starting at Step 6. Go to:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/Make_gift_tags.doc

If you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, you might enjoy learning more about working with picture files (which are usually JPG files) in both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Paint. I have a wide variety of tutorials, just like this one, that will assist you!

Go to Jan’s Reading Room, Tutorials, for all of my available tutorials:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/#Tutorials:

Many “free printables” sites, such as Mom’s Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) and The Craft Café (http://www.thecraftcafe.com/) offer free downloadable jpg files for all different occasions. Use my tutorials to enhance your enjoyment---and your use---of them!

Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit http://www.jansportal.com for more information about Jan's free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s business services. Be sure to visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.