Santa Gift Tags

When I was little I remember Santa used the same labels and same font every year on all the gifts he brought.  What a genius idea since as I got older I got wise to if his writing looked like my mom's or something.  As if I wanted her helping him (no offense mom;)- I wanted "the big man" himself to sign my gifts.

Well in our household now we do things a little different than we did when I was growing up.  Santa only brings one gift per child (when he used to bring everything) and I think it's great; because, now mom and dad and family members give the rest of the gifts!  I think this way, only having one "Santa Present" makes kids more understanding of what to "expect" each year from Santa.

Because Santa only brings one gift per person I took it upon myself to make gift tags for those very special gifts.  Tags I hope will last 'til my kids leave the house (and if not, I can easily make more).  I thought that would be a special "Santa-only" kind of thing that the kids would recognize as from him each year.  And once Christmas is over we'll have Bo Jingle, our Elf on the Shelf, take them back to Santa in the North Pole so he can use them the year after that!  And so on and so on.

I even made some using the names we are planning on naming our kids in the future.  lol

Here's what  I did!:

What you need:

• Letter Stamps
• Sculpey Clay
• X-acto Knife
• Parchment Paper
• Baking Sheet

I actually had all this stuff in my craft box already.  My sculpey clay I had leftover from several Halloweens ago when I made my cavewoman jewelry- and the glitter I had from my teenage years when I used to wear it as makeup, just sitting in my purple caboodle, where all my nail polish resides.  The stamps I had since the baby shower I threw this summer & Hyrum's birthday party- and so basically this craft cost me nothing!

So I took my sculpey clay, rolled it out, cut it in the shape I wanted, and used my stamps and other christmas shapes to make impressions on my tags.  I poked a hole for the string/ribbon to go through later.  From there, you throw it in the oven for as long as the box directs.  For mine, it was 275 deg F for 15 minutes.

After I finished baking them I decided they were cute- but they needed something more.  So, I got out my glue (you can use mod podge, too) and brushed over the tags and sprinkled glitter all over.

I REALLY love what it added- although you have to use fine glitter because otherwise it will fill your impressions and you might not be able to see the pictures/words very well.  Also I have to add that my clay was pretty old so it was kind of hard to roll out perfectly and I had to do a few over because there were bubbles in them.  I'd recommend getting new clay.

This idea can also be used to make ornaments- maybe take cookie cutters to make perfect shapes!  This is a great one to do with kids, too.  Sculpey clay is safe for kids to handle (but not to eat;)

Hooray for starting new traditions!  And just in time too- since Brody is fully aware of how this Santa thing works.  I'm not certain these will last 20 plus years but we'll see!  I thought about doing salt dough like I did as a kid but thinking about it, none of those are with me now.  So, maybe sculpey clay will last.  I really think it will.  My taste is bound to change but I'm sure that won't matter, they'll have sentimental value.  I like how handmade they look- not too perfect.  (: