Tues Tutorial~ Truly Recycled Christmas Tags

I have made a tutorial for these before here and here. As promised from last Fun Friday, here is another tutorial. This time the ribbon was attached differently. Also, the tag punch was not used. These were simply cut in rectangles.   

      This is a project I should do any other time of the year, so they don't have to be made last minute when in a hurry. However, about 30 of these were made in about an hour.

      All of the materials used to make these, can probably be found in your trash or recycling bin. You will need light weight boxes, used fabric softener sheets and scraps of fabrics so small they went in the trash, unless you save them for the doggie mattresses for animal shelters.  

Note: This post was featured on Melva Loves Scraps. She thinks this would be a great way to make book marks. It does remind me of the way the Bible Table of Contents Book marks were made.

  

During the past few years of our falling economy in the US,

I've noticed its becoming harder to find boxes

with white backing

which is nice for these tags.

The sweetener boxes were my usual go to boxes.

Now they are brown.

Which is ok, 

especially with the popular

brown wrapping paper this year

which I did years ago.

(You might like this Paper Stocking idea)

I think it looks great with red ribbons.

Look for boxes that remind you of heavy card stock.

Cracker boxes, tooth paste boxes, etc.

Not shipping boxes.

Back in 2013

my Mother's Caregivers

saved dryer sheets for me.

I'm STILL using them.

 

I've said before,

DO NOT let your iron directly touch the dryer sheets.

The residue will coat your iron which is then near impossible to remove.

I have found out, I can use my silicone ironing sheet.

I fold it in half and note which side is the inside,

nevermore to let my iron touch that inside again.

The fabric softener sheet is laid on the inside,

and I iron on the outside.

To lay the dryer sheet inside the silicone sheet is 

a two hand job to lay flat.

 

A dozen or so of these sheets are ironed,

then stored flat under my cutting mat

until time to use them to make more tags and fabric cards.

 

from https://joysjotsshots.blogspot.com/2022/02/tues-tutorial-bottom-of-barrel-gift-tag.html
 I first got this idea from the paper crafters

who make something called "Master Boards"

with there scrap pieces of paper.

Note above, these sheets weren't even ironed.

The Paper crafters lay papers side by side.

Here, fabric strips of widths not measured,

just approximated

are laid overlapping.

The frayed edges can add character.

These tags are not going to be washed or worn out

so the raw edges are ok.

Basically, no sewing skill needed here.

Here is one of my "Master Boards."

As you can see the widths all very.

Some pieces were cut, some were ripped.

Card board was cut out

 using a rotary cutter specifically used for paper cutting only

and ruler.

Stitch them on the back of the "Master board."

The Edge Stitch foot was used to ride along the side of the card

 to provide even edge stitch.

Perhaps a folksy runaround twice stitching would be your style?

 

 These were cut out with scissors instead of rotary cutter.

 

Notice how many scraps of fabric are left over after cutting apart.

 

The fun part is not knowing what the tags will look like

until after turning them over.

 

In the first tutorial,

the tags were cut out with a tag punch

which also

punched out a hole.

In the second, a hole punch was used.

If you want a hole in the tags,

the trick is to punch a hole in the tag

BEFORE 

sewing onto the Master board.

Actually it was faster to cut long strips of fabric for ribbon

and stitch the center of the ribbon to the top of the tag

reversing the machine a couple of times.

So have fun making cost free tags minus the thread,

using any fabric to suit the occasion.

This would also be the time to use the old thread you

think has lost its reputation 

and can't hold garments or a quilts together.

You can find more tags and fabric cards

HERE.

 This post shared at the following linky parties:

Laura Kelly

Stone Cottage Adventures

Sum of Their Stories

Melva Loves Scraps

Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Wednesday Wait Loss (Quilting)