Making Tags

Tags:

One key thing I find crucial to starting a small business is a good logo! Then whoreing that logo out wherever you can. Yes I did take it a bit vulgar, but honestly I couldn’t think of a more accurate analogy! (Insert precious smiley face here in hopes anyone offended will forgive and continue reading on) When I first started out I went onto Vistaprint.com and made one of their generic ones.

 

It is simple and cute but not too literal. I didn’t want the typical hair bow or thread on the logo because I was afraid that would tie me down to one specific category of products. Once Paige P. and Seams like Sunday came up with the plan of Pins & Needles, I was in search of a new logo. Nothing on any site was tickling my fancy! This was a log I really did want to find something literal for. My oh so smart husband says to me after hours of frustratingly perusing the internet, “Baby, just make one yourself, you are crafty.” That I am dear husband that I am indeed!

          After a quick trip over to Adobe.com to download the oh so magnificent Photoshop, I was a rockin and a rollin! Amy and I knew we wanted something with a vintage feel to it, but really wanted the pins and needles to be incorporated. After scouring the web for a couple more hours I found a fantastic site www.freeprettythingsforyou.com!! She has amazing things and they all have a vintage feel to them. You have to check and make sure that if you download something from there to make into your own logo, that the original owner has okayed it for commercial use! That is a very important fact otherwise you will make a logo, fall in love with it, and then have to take it down and get rid of it because of copyright laws! Yucko!

          After completing the Pins & Needles logo I wanted to test it on some merchandise to preview how it would look. So back over to Vistaprint.com I went. While testing the logo I happened to see that the one I used for Paige P. Boutique was no longer on there, making things difficult for me! Oh shucky darn I guess I get to go play in Photoshop again and make a new logo!!!!!! I couldn’t be selfish and not make one for my bestie Amy, so Seams like Sunday has a new and pretty logo too!

          So about now you are looking back up at the title of the blog and wondering, “Did she have a brain fart and name the logo blog, tags, or is she actually going to talk about tags sometime today?” To answer your question, yes. Oh I should be more specific, yes I am going to talk about tags now, but I needed to lead into it by saying why not have a cool logo to go on these said tags. Any who here is how I make tags for my crafts!

          After playing around in photo shop I made two tag logo’s. One main one and a small one for those little guys that hang out the sides of things like so.

 

Yes that is one of Amy’s bags; she helped inspire me to do the side ones!

          Once both designs are made (and if you want to keep the same one and just do it two different sizes you can) you will need to flip it. It will need to be mirrored for the technique I use. Once mirrored, you can do your tags one of two ways. You can put the design onto fabric or ribbon. I have done both ways and prefer the ribbon way so that is the way I will show you. Measure your ribbon and then adjust the size of the logos to fit. I do that in Word because it is easier for me, then plaster as many as you can on one page. It will be at your discretion how many you do as you will know how well you can cut the designs out. I then print it out on a regular piece of paper so I can compare it to my ribbon.

 

 You don’t want to waste a perfectly good transfer sheet on something that is too big to fit do you? Me neither, those things aren’t as cheap as I would like them to be!

I use the Stretchable Fabric Transfers,

 

 just so there isn’t any cracking or peeling of the transfer sheet once it has been applied and worked with. Sometimes the image that you transfer, if it has been tugged on it can crack and look icky! This can be stretched all around and stay just as you want it!

          Load up your printer with those and print away! Once printed you now have to cut each logo out before ironing on to your ribbon. *** Side note, remember how I said you can use fabric instead of ribbon? If you wanted to do it that way don’t cut out your logos yet. Iron the whole sheet onto your fabric and then you can take a rotary cutter and a ruler and cut them out that way. It is actually easier and faster to do than the ribbon way but I am more partial to the way the ribbons look. Here is what it looks like on fabric.***

 

 

They really aren’t bad looking at all, I just happen to like the ribbon better… and I think I’m a glutton for longer more painstaking tasks that make me want to curse under my breath from time to time.

          Okay back to cutting, I use my paper cutter, because it is the most accurate way for me to cut.

 

 Give me a pair of scissors with no ruler to help guide me and I cut so badly you would actually debate on giving me a breathalyzer to make sure I haven’t been hitting the sauce! Since you have to cut each one out this can take some time, especially with the little ones. You think being able to fit that many onto a sheet of paper is great until it comes time to cut those little buggers out! You have to pay attention to them to make sure you don’t cut too big or too small, so you can’t entertain yourself with a nice episode of 90210 or anything, but you can sit there and hum the 99 bottles of beer on the wall song while you are doing it!

          Once all of the beers have fallen off the wall… uh-hem I mean the logos have been cut out, it is time to iron them onto the ribbon. This will take about the same amount of time if not more… actually I’m pretty certain more time, than cutting them out did. When using iron on transfers you can’t use your ironing board, it is too soft and squishy…he he he not sure why but that made me giggle… so you must find a hard surface to iron on. I use my craft table, and then I throw an old apron down so I don’t hurt my precious table.  Cut your ribbon to the size you want, if you want you can reference a t-shirt or a pair of pants you have with a tag in it and go with that size. I cut mine at 2 inches, for no real reason, just because it was easy to measure and looked good!

 

          Once your ribbon is cut you will want to fold them,

 

 

And then press them with your iron.

 

Not to make a crisp fold but to prepare the ribbon for the transfer sheet and then to mark where you will want to place your logo.

 

Place logo down and iron the heck out of that guy! I like to iron the transfer sheet and then flip over the ribbon and iron the other side too, just for extra oomph! I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the actual ironing process, well because it is quite boring and I was trying to focus on not burning the ribbon!

          Once you feel that the transfer has adhered well to the ribbon pull off the paper backing and take a look at your masterpiece!

 

 I like to flip over the ribbon so the image is facing the table/apron and then press the ribbon to make sure it is crisply folded in half and now resembles a tag!

 

 

          This is the final outcome of the large and small tags! I love them! If you don’t have an entire afternoon/night to iron tags, you can make them as you complete each project. Having a toddler and trying to manage a daily blog, doesn’t give me the time to make them all at once, so when I have an extra half hour or so I will whip out as many as I can! If you decide to make some tags please feel free to share them with us and give us any feedback you may have. We would love to hear from you all!

 

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