Make Handmade Gift Tags

This post is a part of A Greener Christmas Guide, a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the holidays with a lighter impact on the earth.  For more of this series, please visit A Greener Christmas Guide.

Now that all of our gifts are wrapped in decorated blueprints we got for free, it’s time to slap some labels on the things.  Except I’m not sure that the phrase “slap on” really fits any more.  We used to get those generic sheets of to/from stickers wrapped in plastic.  We literally did just slap the stickers onto the gifts and call it good.

This year, with the image of Americans tossing 4 million tons of wrapping paper into the garbage (insane!), I decided to change my label-slapping habits.  As many of you know, I am wrapping my gifts in products heading to the garbage can/recycling bin this year.  My gift labels were no different.  Take a look:

Reused materials:

Non-reused materials:

  • green felt tip marker and stamp ink
  • tacky glue
  • cotton thread

So what do you think?  Ready to keep an eye on what’s heading to your garbage can/recycling bin?  It’s surprising what you can use just one more time.  I think we’d all love to hear your ideas, and if you make some labels of your own, do send pictures!

Meanwhile, I kind of want to go make some more…

(Images by Katie for Making This Home)