Personalized Watercolor Gift Tags

We’re sharing simple Nutcracker & Personalized Watercolor Gift Tags today!

Every year, we spend part of our holiday season shipping and delivering gifts to multiple cities in the South.

While it’s always fun to shop for my favorite people, I slightly panic wondering if all the gifts will arrive on time and if I’ve shipped them to the right places.

Thankfully, we’ve come up with a super simple solution this year – color coding all the gift tags by family.

Our holiday home theme is a Sweet Shop Christmas, I decided to wrap all the gifts in white paper so the tree can be the star of the show!

Here’s a look at how to make Nutcracker & Personalized Watercolor Gift Tags…

Personalized Watercolor Gift Tags Supplies:

• Gift Tags (store bought or made from heavy card stock)
• Craft Paint
• Paintbrush
• Small Bowl or Cup of Water
• Baking Sheet
• Tarp (to protect your work surface)
• Ribbon (optional)

Faux Calligraphy Supplies:

• Home Computer
• Word (or similar program)
• Printer
• Paper
• Scissors
• #2 Pencil
• Ball Point Pen
• Gel Pen, Fine Tip Permanent Marker, or Calligraphy Pen

Personalized Watercolor Gift Tag Steps:

Gather your supplies and lay a tarp down to protect your work surface as this project definitely gets messy!

If can either buy ready-made tags at your local craft supply store or make your own.

I had a lot of heavy cardstock on hand and I’m trying to use up the supplies I have at home before buying new supplies. So, I just made my own.

Next, dip your paintbrush into the cup or bowl of water and lightly brush the water onto the gift tag. Keep in mind, you don’t want to soak the paper.

Then place a few drops of craft paint onto your brush and lightly brush the paint onto the gift tag.

Once you have the color you desire, place your watercolor gift tags on a baking sheet.

Allow them to dry completely. Just a heads up the edges may curl depending on how much paint and water you’ve used.

An Easy Way to Add Calligraphy…

If you want to add a personal touch but haven’t mastered calligraphy yet, no worries!

Simply, use a program like Word on your home computer and type out each recipient’s name. I chose Edwardian Script and size 72 for our watercolor gift tags.

Then print out your list of names on regular computer paper.

Using caution and care as scissors will be sharp, cut out each name.

Flip the paper over and shade the back of the name with a #2 pencil.

Once you’ve finished shading, flip the paper back over with the name side up and carefully place it onto your watercolor gift tag.

Use a ballpoint pen to trace around each letter.

Carefully remove the paper and underneath you’ll see the name has been transferred onto your gift tag.

Then fill in each letter with a gel pen, a fine tip permanent marker, or a calligraphy pen.

Thread a ribbon through the top of your gift tag and enjoy!

What I love most about these gift tags is that they’re super easy to make. They can be made in small batches and customized for any holiday theme.

But the most exciting thing is that they can be used throughout the year for any special occasion!

Nutcracker Inspired Gift Tags…

Now I know some of you are probably already caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season. Especially, if you have kids.

So, I wanted to make something that was even easier than the personalized watercolor gift tags I shared above.

My Mom found this nutcracker wrapping paper for me at Marshalls last year.

It’s relatively thin and not easy to work with. But I love the print so I held onto it hoping I could find another use for it!

I made these gift tags using the same cardstock as the watercolor gift tags.

I simply cut around each nutcracker.

Then glued the wrapping paper directly to the top of the gift tag.

Once the glue was completely dry, I trimmed the edges as needed and punched a hole through the top of the tag.

Then I slipped a ribbon through the hole.

I left the back blank so I could write a special message on each nutcracker-inspired gift tag. Honestly, I still can’t believe it took less than 15 minutes to pull them together, save for drying time!

If you don’t have nutcracker wrapping paper, don’t sweat it. You can literally use any wrapping paper you have on hand to make a similar gift tag!

Inching Closer to Christmas…

As we inch closer to Christmas, I find myself cozied up to our wrapping station with a golden milk latte or a coquito wrapping gifts as they arrive.

It’s such a special way to end the day with the twinkling lights from the tree and our favorite Christmas music playing in the background.

No matter if you wrap your gifts as they arrive or host a marathon wrapping sesh with Santa on Christmas Eve, I hope these simple watercolor and nutcracker-inspired gift tags help make your season merry and bright!

If you need more gift tag ideas, you can find our vintage-inspired gift tags here.

Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo