Christmas Gift Tags Tutorial: Useful Origami

With Christmas bells ringing and knocking at the door very soon, here is a quick and easy DIY that you can try all by yourself this season.

I had made a few origami stuff for Christmas a month back with the intention of making some cards but I couldn't make them due to unavailability of time. Some origami elements I had in stock were; an Origami Santa, a Boot, a Heart, a Xmas Tree, a Snowman and a Bell. As usual, left with a tight schedule for the day, I had to make something that would be quick and easy too and something that I could use as gifts this season itself. So after a little bit of online searching, I had decided, no cards, nothing complicated...let's keep it simple and let's make it fast.

Here, is how they ended up... cute little Christmas Gift Tags that I could use this year itself.

Christmas Gift Tags 

Below is a brief tutorial, with pictures that highlight the steps the way I made them - the Art Hours' way. Well, that's what my FB page is called..."Art Hours" - this is where I keep uploading most of the work we do as students and teacher.

Generally, the gift tags come in various standard sizes such as; 1.75"x3", 2.25"x4.5", and more...However, the gift tags shown are of size 4"x 2.5" in size and I didn't follow any standards for I made use of whatever scrap paper I had in hand. I make sure to use every scrap paper even newspapers for that matter since I believe in recycling and reusing of paper. I am sure unlike many other crafters or artists, I am comparatively more frugal when it comes to making use of paper and I use every last bit of scrap. So let's begin with the tutorial. 

Materials required:

Card paper, origami paper, scissors, scale, pencil, glue, a hole punch and some ribbons or strings.

Step 01:

Prepare the base for the tag. Here I have used two different sizes, one for the base and another layer to add on the base. I would suggest use card paper or any thicker sheet for the base. 

Here, the orange base is about 4"x 2.5" in size, and the green paper is about 3.5"x1.5" in size.

Step 01: Prepare the base for the gift tag

Step 02:
Glue the green paper on the orange base, leaving equal borders on the 3 sides and more margin on the top to insert the ribbon. You can also leave more space on the bottom to write personalized messages. The size of the 2nd layer depends on how you want to design your gift tag.

Step 02: Glue one colored paper over another.

Step 03:

Now, glue the origami element made earlier onto the surface of the tag. I used several different elements viz: the Xmas tree, a Heart, a Boot, a Santa, a Bell and so on. These origami elements have been made using square origami papers of size 3.0"x3.0".

Step 03: Glue the origami element on the base

Step 04:
Once, the origami element is added, make a hole on the top center of the tag using a hole punch. 

Step 04: Make a hole at the top center

Step 05:
Next step is to give a shape to the tag, you can trim the top sides or you can even leave them as it is.

Step 05: Shape the tags by cutting the top sides

Step 06:

Now, all you need to do is insert some strings or ribbons through the hole made and the gift tags are ready. 

Step 06: Pass the ribbons or strings through the holes made

Step 07:
Lastly, add messages to your tags. You can either follow a calligraphy style or write messages in your own good handwriting to make it more personal. You can even use stamps or stencils to make it look neat. I leave that option for you to decide.

Step 07: Add personalized messages

Here's how the Christmas Gift Tags look like after adding the handwritten messages.

Christmas Gift Tags with Handwritten Messages

You can use these lovely gift tags to tie with your gifts or you can even hang them as decorations on the Christmas tree. If not then you can just gift them to your friends as a small gesture of love and good wishes for the season.

---

Origami Carnation Flowers Tutorial

Last month, we celebrated the World Origami Day on the 11th of Nov 2016, by conducting an Origami Workshop for the parent and child. You can view the highlights of the workshop here. One of the things the participants enjoyed making was an origami paper basket filled with carnation flowers. It is not an easy model to start with for the beginners, but all the kids with their parents took up the challenge, and each one of them had completed and made a beautiful origami paper basket filled with carnation flowers.

Origami Basket with Carnation Flowers

Here's a picture that shows the steps for making the Origami flowers using a square sheet of paper. For this tutorial, the size of paper used is 6cmx6cm, but for the workshop, we used origami papers of size 7.5x7.5cm, while for the basket the paper size is 210cm square cut out from an A4 sheet.

Materials required:

• Square paper, again here the size of paper used for the flower is 6cm x 6cm.
• A pair of scissors
• Pencil

Tutorial for Origami Carnation Flower

Procedure:

• Step 01: Start by making creases along both the diagonals of the square paper.  Note: Here, we have used single colored paper, meaning they are of the same color on both the sides and you don't have to worry which side should be on top.
• Step 02: Turn the paper over and make the creases along the horizontal and verticals of the square as shown in the picture above. You are preparing to make the square base.
• Step 03: Follow the creases and fold to make the square base.
• Step 04: Now, keeping the open side upwards, fold in both the bottom sides as shown in the picture to meet at center.
• Step 05: Turn the paper over and repeat step 04 for this side also.
• Step 06: Now cut the top part using a pair of scissors following an arch shape. You can roughly draw with a pencil for guidelines before making the cuts.
• Step 07: Fold in the bottom tip to touch the top at center, crease well and then fold back.
• Step 08: Now open the flower and flatten from the top following the crease made in last step and the flower is ready.

The origami flower made using the above steps is finally about 3.5cm in diameter. I attached a paper stem with a leaf at the base of every flower. 

Carnations with stem

I shall soon post the tutorial for making the origami basket that we made to hold the flowers. Till then do give this beautiful carnation flowers a try. 

Have a good day!

---

Tutorial: From Paper Strips to a Heart Decoration

Just a couple of days ago, I posted a tutorial on how to use paper strips scraps to make a floral decoration. You can view the link here to view how we made the paper hearts. Making the heart units is a fun activity for the kids and keeps them involved up to a certain stage.

Left with lots of paper scraps from our previous workshop we decided to use them for some craft activity. In the previous tutorial, we made simple hearts using two similar sized stripes. To make it interesting we used two different colors to make the heart unit. While in this tutorial, we made hearts using two different sized paper strips with two different color combinations as shown in the picture below. 

 Left Inset: The heart unit formed using similar sized paper strips
Right Inset: The heart unit formed using different sized paper strips

This tutorial begins in a similar manner but the end result is different and much simpler for kids to try with minimum guidance from parents. The following tutorial includes step by step guidance to make the decoration along with pictures to make it easier for kids to follow.  

Tutorial:

We used paper strips that were left over from our previous craft activities. You can cut them as per your requirement or follow the steps below. We had strips of two different lengths, to form the double loop. We joined the two loops to make a heart shape. Once, the heart shapes were done, we joined every heart unit using glue or stapled them together. 

Materials used: Paper strips, scissors, stapler, glue.

Paper size used for outer loop: 6" x 1"

Paper size used for inner loop: 4" x 1"

Step 1: Make the inner loop using the 4"x1" paper strip by applying glue at the edges.

Step 1: The inner loop using the smaller sized strip

Step 2: Using the longer sized strip, make another loop by gluing it to the outer edges of smaller loop.

Step 2: The outer loop glued to the inner paper loop

Step 3: Make two units using two different colored paper strips as shown below.

Step 3: Paper loops using two different colored paper strips

Step 4: Now apply glue to the inner edges of the two looped units, and join them to form a heart shape.

Step 4: The heart unit formed by sticking two looped units together

Step 5: Make many such heart units using the above steps.

Step 5: Many heart units formed using the above steps

Step 6: Staple two units as shown in the picture below. You can also use glue instead of a stapler to join them.

Step 6: Join the units using stapler or glue

Done: Join all the units together using staples or glue to form the heart decoration.

Done: All the units are joined to form the heart decoration

Once done we were looking for places to use the decoration. We placed it in all the locations including the entrance door, the balcony railing, etc. We also used it as a garland around a soft toy. Finally, it ended up as a decoration for the toy house.

Decoration at the entrance door

Decoration on the balcony railing

Garland around the soft toy

Finally found the place to decorate the toy house

Suggestion or tips for use: 

This heart decoration can be used for decoration during parties or other events, or also as decoration in your kid's room. Since, its an easy DIY paper craft activity for kids, you can involve your kids to make this decoration for their birthday celebration too; involvement of kids for decoration during their own birthday celebration will not only make them happy but they will also realize the efforts we adults take to celebrate their birthdays.

---