DIY Christmas Gift Tag

Last Updated on March 3, 2022

Hello wonderful readers! I am super excited to share my DIY Christmas Gift Tag tutorial with you today. I never really love any of the gift tags for sale in the stores, and since I am an owner of a Silhouette CAMEO {a.k.a. the machine that can do nearly everything}, I figured I would make my own this year. This is the first design that I have come up with and I am absolutely, positively in LOVE with it!

I used Silhouette Sketch pens for this design, and then also used my CAMEO to cut out the design. I have to say–sketch pens are quickly becoming one of my favorite tools to use. They are so cool and can create such whimsical drawings and text. Swoon. Okay, on with the tutorial! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

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DIY Christmas Gift Tag Tutorial: Using Sketch Pens and Cut Feature

Materials Needed:

• Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait 
• Adhesive Backed Mat Stack{this is a link to the exact card stock I use, though I used 6 x 6 inch sheets}
• Silhouette Sketch Pens {I used red and gold for my design}

Steps:

1) Place your adhesive card stock, pretty side up, on your cutting mat.

2) Now, open your Silhouette Studio software and set your design up. Bear in mind that if your Silhouette can cut it with a blade, it can ALSO draw it with a sketch pen. Pretty cool, huh? For my design, I downloaded the swirl sketch border {Design ID #33016} and Jennifer sketch font {Design ID #52333}. I sized my swirl borders so that I could fit two to a page. Then I added my girls' names using the Jennifer sketch font.

3) Once you are happy with your design, open the Cut Settings window. By default, all lines in your project will be set to “Cut.”  Just bear in mind that with sketch pens, the pen will be drawing instead of cutting. Anything that is set to “Cut” will instead be drawn with your sketch pens. So, if you want to use two different colors like I did, you have to select the portion of your design that you do not want drawn the first time around and change the cut style to “No Cut.” I drew only the outlines on my first pass, so I adjusted my settings accordingly. Only the portion of your design with a thick red line on top of it will be drawn. Load your first color sketch pen and send it to your Silhouette!

2) After the first part of your design has been drawn, DO NOT UNLOAD YOUR CUTTING MAT OR ADJUST IT IN ANY WAY! Instead, reverse the steps outlined in step 1 above. You will want to change the swirly outline to “no cut” and the names to “cut.” Be really careful not to accidentally move any part of your design as you do this. Then, don't forget to change the color of your sketch pen before you send it to your Silhouette!

3) Once your entire design has been sketched, you still need to cut out your design, so DO NOT UNLOAD YOUR CUTTING MAT OR ADJUST IT IN ANY WAY! This final step is a bit more involved than the others, so I am going to break it down a bit.

• First, select each design {technically, each tag is its own design}. Right click and select “release compound path.”

• Next, select each swirly outline and change the cut settings to “cut.”
• You won't want to cut over any of your beautiful swirl design, so you will want to leave a tiny gap between the sketch line and the cut line. To do this, you need to create an offset by highlighting your design and clicking the your Offset button. Again, be careful not to move your design even the slightest around the work area while you're doing this! Click ‘Offset' and change the settings to round corner offset and the distance way down to .05.

Now you're ready to cut. Change your cuts settings to reflect the type of paper you are using, adjust your blade height and then swap your sketch pen out for your blade in the machine. Then send it to your Silhouette!

And this is how your beautiful DIY Christmas gift tag will look! Isn't it GORGEOUS?!

What do you think? I absolutely ADORE them and think my girls will, too! If you love this idea, be sure to pin it so you can find it later!

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