Luggage Tags

Last month I organized a Spring Boutique for my church, and I decided it would be fun to have a Make-and-Take project at my booth. Since I sell calendars, I figured something calendar-related would be appropriate.  So I created these Calendar Tags:

A couple of days after the boutique my friend Sarah came over to my office to play.  Long story short... she needed a gift for her mom, and they were leaving for a girls' trip to New York in a few days.  We tweaked the Calendar Tags a bit, and viola... Luggage Tags!  

Here's how you can make one of your own.

You will need:

Coordinating paper

Chipboard tag (I used Kaiser Kraft's Beyond the Page Bag Tags, which come in a set of 5)

Ribbon

Glue

Ink pad

X-acto knife

File

I also used my Cricut machine, and some Shimmer Spritz for sparkle, but if you don't have those items you can do without.

First, cover one entire side of the tag with glue.  Make sure to get it really well around the edges, including around the hole.

Cover that side with one of your decorative papers and smooth is down to ensure it is stuck very well.

Now you will need to cut around the edge of the tag with an X-acto knife.  

Be sure to also cut around the hole.

Don't worry if your edge is not perfect because after cutting, you will file around the entire edge.  This ensures that the paper is flush with the edges, and gives it a bit of a distressed look.

Now do the same thing to the other side of the tag, using a coordinating paper.

Using an ink pad (I like to use Stayz On ink because it dries quickly and won't get all over everything), color all around the edges.  

If you would like a more distressed look, you can rub a little around the edges of the paper as well.

Then be sure to dab the edges with some tissue to get off any excess ink and avoid a huge mess.

Next I used my Cricut machine to cut out a shadowed initial for the front of my tag.  

 

If you don't have a die cutting machine, you can print a letter out from your computer, use rubber cement to lightly glue it to your decorative paper, then cut it out and remove the stencil. 

Glue your letter onto one side of your tag.

I created a simple address label on my computer, then mounted it on some coordinating solid paper...

and glued it onto the other side of the tag.

Cut some ribbon (I used toule) to tie through the whole for decoration.  

This is where I added the sparkle!  If you have some sort of glitter spray (I used Shimmer Spritz, which I am kind of obsessed with right now), spray the letter side of the tag.

Cut a long piece of ribbon (about a yard, so that you have plenty of space to tie it onto your luggage), fold it in half, and slip the loop through the hole in the tag, from the letter side.

Slip the other end of the ribbon through the loop.

Then pull it tightly all the way through.

Look how cute!

Finally, I added a fun little quote to the letter side of the tag.  It says, "High Maintenance doesn't even begin to describe it!"

And that's it!

All in all I would say that this craft takes about 15 minutes to complete, not counting the time it will take you to create the printed elements.  If you would like a pdf of the file that I used, leave a comment with your email address and I will gladly send it to you!