THE most exciting thing about blogging is when someone reaches out to you and says that they were able to use an idea that you shared to create their own project! I received just such a Facebook message a few days ago from my cousin, Ali, and I loved what she did so much that I’m excited to share it with you today!
Ali has elementary age twin boys, and she recently made some adorable name tags for her boys backpacks using the cover of my fabric and paint swatch kit as inspiration. For my swatch kit, I used a medium weight chipboard to make the cover durable {since it’s always getting knock around in my purse} and attached a cute design that I printed on cardstock. I then used Mod Podge to give the cover a protective coating.
Using this same method, Ali made super durable name tags for her boys’ backpacks. I cut my chipboard and cover by hand, but Ali used her Silhouette Cameo to cut the chipboard and black cardstock for her tags. She used her Xyron Creative Station {uh oh, another crafting tool I now need!} to apply a permanent adhesive to the cardstock and affixed it to the chipboard {of course, you could simply use glue or spray adhesive}.
Ali then used her Silhouette Cameo to cut the letters of her boys names and adhered them to the tags in the same manner. If you don’t have a Silhouette, there are lots of quick and easy alternatives. You could print your kiddos’ names on a colored background using your home printer, or you could purchase cute letter stickers from your local craft store.
Once Ali had attached the letters to the name tags, she covered the tags in Mod Podge and let them dry. She says the Mod Podge finish makes the completed name tags almost feel like they are made out of vinyl, so they will surely stand up to a little rough treatment from her two active boys!
In order to attach the name tags to her boys’ backpacks, so punched a hole in each and added an eyelet using the same tool that I used to inset eyelets in my swatch book cover – the Crop-A-Dile.
If you don’t own a Crop-A-Dile, you can also set eyelets using a inexpensive eyelet setter tool available at any craft store. For more details on eyelet setting tools, and instructions on how to use them, see my swatch kit post.
Ali then looped a rubber band through each eyelet and hung the tags from her boys’ backpacks. She may replace the rubber bands with key chain rings in the future, but for now, the rubber bands are doing the trick!
Thanks, Ali, for letting me share these fabulous name tags with my readers! Happy Friday everyone!!
