Tutorial | Gift Tags for Men

Handmade gifts and gift wrappings for men can be a huge crafty challenge. I like to add feminine touches such as bling, tulle and sheer ribbons to my projects, not exactly appealing to most of the men I know.
I have been wanting to create these gift tags for awhile, so when I ran across an interesting shade of Dye-Na-Flow from Jacquard Products, I decided it would be the perfect start for these mixed media tags.
I poured the Dye-Na-Flow mixed with water in a 1:1 ration into a plastic container and using jewelry tweezers, dipped the tags into the mixture of Pewter.
 
Next, lay the wet tags on waxed paper and use a heat tool to speed the drying time. To make the background more interesting, I used the jewelry tweezers to flick small dots of the paint mixture on the tags and heat set.

To add to the mixed media look and also add a little color interest, use some Lumiere in Halo Gold Violet and dry brush the tags.

I used a Castaway stamp pad in place of a watermark ink pad to stamp an interesting and man friendly image onto the tag.
  Sprinkle black embossing powder on the image and heat emboss.

Add a special touch using these super cute french vintage number plates. Simply insert brads through the holes to secure.
You may also want to add some texture such as fabric swatches. To add the sentiments, I printed small words from my computer onto Jacquard Inkjet Cotton Percale sheets.
Then cut them with scissors and glue to the fabric on the tags.
There are many ways to use the tags. Create an interesting gift bag...

Make a card by inserting the tag into a clear pocket...

I would love to hear from you- How would you use these tags? Bookmarkers? To dress up gift jars?
Live Life Creatively,
Source : http://mel-designs.typepad.com/my-blog/2011/07/mixed-media-gift-tags-for-men.html