TAG You're It! Easy instructions on journaling tags for beginner scrapbookers.

As promised.... here comes *easy as pie* directions on how to make a cute tag for journaling.

Step One: Type or write your journaling first... this helps you measure other things later.  Try using plain white or lightly colored paper (or something with a very faint pattern... we don't want to distract from all that poetry now, do we?)

Step Two: Pick out the patterned paper you want as the background for your tag.  I chose stripes... funky stripes to match funky argyle.

Step Three: Find a cute little button.  (BTW people: my favorite place to get buttons is from all those annoying little button envelopes that come with new clothes.  Before I started scrapbooking, I used to keep mine in a little drawer... with the Martha-Stewart-like intention of actually sewing a button back on if one happened to fall off.  Instant killer of button-sewing homemaker skills?  Safety pins!  So what do we do with the buttons?  Glue them on scrapbook pages.  *Applause please.*)

Step Four: Cut out your journaling into a rectangular shape and decide how much bigger you want the tag to be... it can be a subtle 1/4 inch border, or more decorative and bold with a 1 inch or larger border.  (Don't adhere the journaling to the patterned paper yet.)

Step Five: Gently (without creasing) fold your patterned paper in half (hot-dog style).  Take some scissors and snip off the corners of one side at about a 45 degree angle.  The point of folding the paper is so the angles are identical.  I learned this the hard way.  Don't cut it all the way into a point; you're gonna want it to look like this:  

Step Six: Take a small snippet of the same paper you wrote your journaling on and cut a long skinny rectangle.  Use a glue dot to stick it on, leaving part of the rectangle hanging over the edge of the patterned paper, and then fold it around to the other side.

Step Seven: Use another glue dot to stick your button in the center of the rectangle from Step Five.  Adhere your journaling and you. are. done!

What do YOU like to use tags for?  Any other suggestions on techniques?

Beginner scrapbooking tip: I love using tiny tags to write the month and year.  This way, the tag doubles as a cute embellishment and will help jog your memory of when those photos were taken.