How to Personalize Christmas Gift Tags
Gift-giving at Christmas is always a lot of fun. Gift tags are necessary and for big families can make the whole gift giving process easier. Having your tags stand out means finding them easily under the tree, and giving your gift recipients a little something extra.Making your own tags is easy thanks to home computers and printers and personalizing them is a snap with the use of Photoshop or clip art. Want to personalize your Christmas gift tags? Here’s how.
Things You'll Need
- Color printer
- Business card stock
- Images
- Adobe Photoshop software
- Microsoft Word software
Instructions
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Personalizing Your Images
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Open Adobe Photoshop and then open the image of you, your family or pet. Don't worry if the image is from summer camp or a vacation in Mexico, with Photoshop, you can alter any image so that it has a little holiday flair.
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Alter your image. Search for a clip art or photo of something holiday-related, such as a Santa hat, candy canes or gifts. You can locate images in Microsoft Word or Publisher clip art, or online. For this example below, I am using Santa hats.
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Open your Santa hat or other image in Adobe Photoshop. Open your original image as well so that you can easily move between photos. Having both images on screen means you can do a simple drag and drop paste.
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Using the magnetic lasso tool, outline the Santa hat and then click on the arrow tool to drag it onto your family photo. It may be way too big at first, but you can re-size it.
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Go to Edit and Free Reform to re-size and move the hat around on the photo until it “fits.” You will use the "handles" at the corners of the image to shrink it down to size, then you can use "free reform" to turn or angle the photo till it looks just like.
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“Apply” the changes by clicking on the arrow tool again and selecting “apply.” You can still make adjustments if necessary by clicking on the hat and then going back to Free Reform.
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Save your image as a jpeg to insert in your Word document. The image must be in a jpeg rather than an Adobe file as the Adobe file won't open in Word.
Putting the Tags Together
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Open Microsoft Word and go to Microsoft Office Online to download a business card template to match your card stock number. Most available card stock is produced by Avery, so take note of the Avery stock number and download a matching business card template.
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Click on one of the business cards and go to Insert and Picture, From File. Locate your image and click OK. If you typically have trouble finding your special images I recommend saving them on your desktop or in a special holiday file.
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Resize the image as necessary so that it fits on about 1/3 to 2/3 of the card. You can right click on the image then go to Format to re-size your picture easily.
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Type in “From:” and “To.” Change the font color to red or green to make it more festive by going to the Letter A on your toolbar and changing the font color.
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Copy and paste the image on the rest of the cards, or insert holiday clip art on a few for variety. You may have to manipulate your images or text between cards as the pasting process may alter your placement.
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Copy and paste the “from,” and “to” to each card as well. This may happen automatically when you paste your artwork, but if not, do it manually.
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Print cards off and separate. Attach to gifts with tape or string and fill in the “to” and “from” area. Your gifts will be easy to find under the tree and relatives to whom you send these gifts with these tags will appreciate the personal touch.
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Tips & Warnings
Get the kids in on the act by having them select holiday clip art for their own gift tags.
Use the same personalized images for your Christmas cards to create a theme.
If you can't find a template for your business cards at Microsoft Office Online, try Avery.com and download a free template to use.
Check to be sure you have plenty of colored ink for your printing process.
Print a test sheet before printing on your card stock to confirm proper placement of artwork and text.
Resources
- Photo Credit Diane Steinbach
