Easy Gift Tags

It's almost time for my gift wrapping tutorials, but first, you may want to cut out some gift tags so you have them ready! These gift tags are made from decorative card stock. To make them you will need:

Scissors or Xacto knife
card stock in desired colors/patterns
ruler
pencil to lightly mark some measurements (if needed)

I have some pretty nifty rulers in varying widths, etc that are made from clear plastic, so I generally skip marking my cuts with pencil, but if you feel more comfortable doing that, go right ahead. Just make sure to make your lines lightly so they may be fully erased on your final project.

I start by deciding how large I want my tags to be. These are 2 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches tall. Cut your rectangles out of your card stock and set aside.

Next, to make your tags a little more exciting than a simple rectangle, pick one corner from which to start your measurements. Measure 3/4 of an inch from the corner in each direction, make a small dot with pencil if needed. Using your measurements, cut out a triangle from the corner. Repeat on other side so you are left with your gift tags as seen here:

If you plan on attaching your tags to your gifts with ribbon or string, you will want to use a hole punch to make it easier to attach your string. This will make your finished gift tag look like this:

If you do a lot of paper crafts you may have some decorative corner punches, or edge punches that you can use to make your edges more decorative, but I like going with standard straight lines on my tags. When not using string, I attach mine to gifts using double sided tape (while not necessary, double sided tape really can make gifts look much more professionally wrapped. I generally prefer to just use regular tape, no one I know generally cares about a little tape showing on their gifts).

Come back all weekend for some great gift wrapping tutorials! I even have some sewn gift bags for the smaller gifts on your list!

Nutella Cookies with Candy Cane Kisses

Friday once again, and I am back with an experimental recipe that was, admittedly, a little bit of a fail on my part. I meant for these to turn out more like thumbprint cookies, but I lacked margarine or shortening (and my first attempt didn't have enough flour). As a result, my cookies spread a little too much and so my pictures are not that great. The cookies do taste delicious, however, so I had to share anyway. I'm not above admitting my shortcomings. The recipe is, of course, updated, to give you a better shot at more eye pleasing cookies.


To make these tasty morsels you will need:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup margarine, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup Nutella (chocolate Hazlenut spread)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Candy Cane Hershey's Kisses (If you don't want to mess with the thumbprint cookie idea, these can certainly be chopped into smaller pieces and mixed right in with the dough!)

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and margarine (I typically use both butter and margarine because I have found that butter gives a better taste, but margarine typically allows your cookies to become fluffier and not fall flat, alas I was out of margarine). Add the brown sugar and sugar and cream together. Beat in the Nutella, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract.

In a small mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes before scooping cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and scoop out tablespoon sized balls of dough. Roll gently in your (clean) hands to make a ball and place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Once all of your dough balls are on the cookie sheet, place one Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each one and press down gently. You want the kiss to stick into the cookie without smashing it flat. You will have a tray that looks something like this:

Bake your cookies at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on cookie tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container.

Accordion Fold Bow

Today's bow(s) are super simple and can be made any size. If you feel like busting out some sewing skills, you can also make these from fabric (you might want a little interfacing on larger ones to help them keep a crisp shape though)! The best part is that you can alter these to make your accordion bow into a snowflake bow and then every bow is different!

To start, select your paper or fabric (to get nice crisp folds in your end product and assure that it will spread nicely once open, I recommend using thinner paper rather than a card stock. Magazine paper or gift wrap would be perfect as it allows your paper to move pretty freely.

I always use the ratio of one inch wide for every three inches long when cutting my paper into a strip to be folded. The bow seen here is 4 inches wide, so I used a strip of paper 12 inches long.

If you want a "perfect" looking bow, you can measure out inch increments on the back of your bow or score fold lines so each fold is the same size. Then, fold your paper back and forth to make this accordion folded strip (I always fold my accordion an even number of times, so both "ends" are folded with the pretty side facing out and the plain side facing inwards so no one sees it in the final bow.):

Once it is folded you will want to staple it in the middle (or sew if using fabric), and then spread out your little folds to make a circular bow. Secure your ends together with glue, tape or another staple and you will have this:

A little Plain Jane for your taste? Once you have stapled your accordion folded paper in the middle, feel free to cut out some shapes as if you were making a paper snowflake. Here is my accordion folded paper, stapled, with cut outs:

You could use pinking shears or other decorative edged scissors to add a little more "oompf" as well. Again, using a thinner paper aids dramatically in being able to cut out your shapes.


When you spread out and fasten the edges of your snowflake together now you will get a bow that looks like this:

There you have it! Again, this is a great way to start out making bows in an assembly line type of way, but end up with a bunch of great unique bows by cutting out different shapes!