Personalized "Made by Me" Tags

For years I have wanted personalized labels that I could attach to my sewing, knit or crocheted projects. You can buy tags at most craft stores that say something like "Made with love by" and then you write in your name, but I was looking for something more professional. I even considered purchasing printed labels, but it seemed rather expensive.

Recently I discovered an inexpensive way to create my own personalized tags. I made an 18 foot spool of tags for less than $5 and it was pretty simple. Seriously. I don't know why I haven't made these before.

Materials

• 18 foot spool of 7/8 inch wide, white polyester ribbon
• printable, iron-on tee shirt transfer paper
• paper trimmer or scissors
• iron

Directions

The most complicated part of this entire process is deciding what you want your tag to look like. Use a word processing program or spreadsheet to design your tags.

I used Microsoft Excel to design my tags. I included my Chilly Dog logo, the words "Hand crafted with care by The Chilly Dog," and my blog address.

I can not emphasize this next part enough.

When you print your design on the heat transfer material, make sure the image is mirrored so the words and images appear to be backwards.

If you don't print your tags mirrored, they will end up being backwards when you iron them onto your ribbon. (You can find the "mirror image" option in your print settings.)

Cut the heat transfer material into strips slightly narrower than the ribbon.

Lay out your ribbon on an ironing surface.

Position the first strip of heat transfer material onto the ribbon.

Press the heat transfer material as indicated in the package directions.

Remove the transfer paper to reveal your tags.

I used two sheets of iron on transfers to create an entire spool of tags that are ready to be used whenever I need them. I simply have to cut, fold the tag in half, and sew it onto my project.