How to Make Gift Tags: Printable Template, Sizes & Ideas

A gift tag tells everyone whose present is whose, and a nice one makes even plain wrapping look finished. Making your own takes an evening: print a sheet of tags on cardstock, cut them out, punch the holes and add twine. Here are the usual gift tag sizes and shapes, the best paper, how to cut and punch tags by hand or with a cutting machine, ribbon and design ideas for Christmas and the rest of the year, and what to write on them.

Gift tag sizes and shapes

There's no official gift tag size, but a few sizes cover nearly every present. These are the ones in the template:

Tag	Size	Per sheet (A4 / US Letter / A3)	Good for
Standard, classic or rounded	2 × 3.5 in (50.8 × 88.9 mm)	8 / 6 / 18	Most presents: room for a picture plus "To" and "From"
Mini, classic or rounded	1.5 × 2.5 in (38.1 × 63.5 mm)	15 / 15 / 35	Small gifts, party favours and price tags
Round	2 in (50.8 mm) across	12 / 10 / 30	Jars, bottles, baked goods and favours

The three shapes:

• Classic tag: the luggage-tag shape, a rectangle with both top corners clipped at 45°. Anyone recognises it as a gift tag at a glance.
• Rounded tag: a rectangle with soft corners (5 mm on the standard tag, 4 mm on the mini), for a cleaner, more modern look.
• Round tag: a 2 in circle, good on jars and anything with a lid.

Every tag has a 5 mm (3/16 in) ribbon hole, centred 6 mm below the top edge. That leaves enough card above the hole that a tugged ribbon doesn't tear through.

Paper: cardstock, kraft or stickers?

• Cardstock is the standard. Medium to heavy card, roughly 200–300 gsm (80–110 lb cover), feels like a real tag, hangs nicely on a ribbon and doesn't tear at the hole. Thin printer paper flops and rips.
• Matte or linen-finish card takes a pen well, if you'll write the names by hand. Glossy photo card makes photos brighter but smudges under a pen.
• Kraft card gives the brown, rustic look that suits twine and paper wrapping. Home printers can't print white, so anything white in your design shows as brown, and colours come out darker. Bold, dark designs work best.
• Tag or sticker? A sticker label goes flat on the wrapping and needs no hole or string, which is quicker for a big pile of presents. A tag hangs from the ribbon, feels more like part of the gift, and can be kept afterwards.

Printing

1. Print at 100% / Actual size, not "Fit to page". See printing at actual size.
2. Choose the cardstock or heavy paper setting, and use your printer's rear or manual feed if it has one: thick card feeds better on a straighter path.
3. Test on plain paper first. A standard tag should measure 2 × 3.5 in (50.8 × 88.9 mm).
4. Let the ink dry for a few minutes before cutting, so it doesn't smudge.

Cutting and punching the hole

With a Cricut or Silhouette

Use print-then-cut with the cut file: the machine cuts the tag outline and the ribbon hole in one go, clipped corners included. Use a cardstock setting and cut one test tag before the whole sheet.

By hand

1. Cut the straight sides with a paper trimmer, or a craft knife and a steel ruler. A trimmer is the fastest way through a sheet of rectangles.
2. Clip the top corners of classic tags along the printed lines with scissors, or round the corners of rounded tags with a corner rounder punch. Cut round tags with scissors or a circle cutter.
3. Punch the hole on the printed circle. A standard 3/16 in hole punch matches the 5 mm hole; a 1/4 in punch gives thicker ribbon more room.
4. Reinforce the hole if you like, with a metal eyelet or a paper reinforcement ring, on tags meant to be kept.

Ribbon, twine and string ideas

• Baker's twine: thin cotton string, usually striped. Red and white is the classic Christmas look.
• Jute twine: brown and rustic, perfect with kraft tags and brown paper.
• Narrow satin or velvet ribbon: thin ribbon threads through a 5 mm hole and gathers neatly.
• Metallic or elastic cord: gold or silver cord for a dressy present; elastic cord slips over a bottle neck or a jar lid with no knot at all.
• Wide ribbon: too wide for the hole? Thread a loop of twine through the tag and pass the ribbon through the loop.

To attach a tag without a bulky knot, use a lark's head knot: fold the string in half, push the loop through the hole, pull both ends through the loop and tighten. Then tie the ends around the present's ribbon. A small bell, a cinnamon stick or a sprig of greenery tucked into the knot finishes a Christmas gift.

Gift tag design ideas

Christmas

• Plaid, snowflake, candy-stripe or tiny-star patterns, with one design for the whole family's presents.
• A colour for each person, so children find their own presents fast.
• Photo tags: a favourite photo from the year, or a photo of the person the gift is for.
• A child's drawing, scanned or photographed, turned into tags for the grandparents' presents.

Making badges or fridge magnets as stocking fillers too? See Christmas badges and fridge magnets and the fridge magnet templates.

Birthdays

The age in big numbers, the party colours, or a baby photo of the birthday person. Mini tags suit party bags and favours.

Weddings

Favour tags with the couple's names or initials and the date, on ivory or kraft card tied with twine. Round tags fit jars of honey, jam or sweets.

Baby showers

Soft pastels, a simple animal, or the baby's name if the parents have shared it. Mini tags fit favour bags; standard tags fit the guests' gifts.

Small business: product tags and hang tags

Candles, soaps, jams, knitwear and baked goods all look more finished with a tidy tag. Put your shop name or logo on the front, and the product name, scent or flavour, or care notes on a second tag. Mini and round tags suit jars and small items; the standard tag suits clothes and gift sets. For food and cosmetics, a decorative tag doesn't replace the product label, so check what your local rules ask for.

What to write on a gift tag

The basics are To and From. One short line after that makes the tag feel personal. A few ideas you're welcome to use:

• Christmas: "Wrapped by elves who know you very well." / "From our house to yours, with warm wishes for the new year." / "Open after the cocoa."
• Birthday: "One more candle, one more reason to celebrate you." / "Open before the cake, then share the cake."
• Wedding: "To the newlyweds: here's to your first chapter." / For favours: "Thank you for celebrating with us," with the names and the date.
• Baby shower: "For tiny toes and big adventures." / "Hello, little one. We can't wait to meet you."
• Thank you: "A small thank you for a big kindness."
• Small business: "Made in small batches, just for you." / "Thank you for supporting a small maker."

Keep it to one or two lines so the text stays big enough to read, and leave the area around the hole clear. Printing names? Make one design per person, so every tag is ready to tie on.

How to make gift tags in My Badge Studio

1. Open the template. Start from the gift tag template, or pick it from the Gift Tags group of the Studio's template picker: classic, rounded or round, standard or mini, on A4, US Letter or A3.
2. Add your designs. Upload one picture per tag for different designs, such as a photo for each person, or one picture with a quantity to fill the sheet with the same tag.
3. Add the words in Edit Badge: "To" and "From", a name or a short message. You can also move and zoom the picture. Keep text out of the dashed band around the hole, which shows only on screen.
4. Download the print-ready PDF and print on cardstock at 100%. The ribbon hole is a real cut line: it prints with the outline and is in the cut file, which plans that include cut files can export for a cutting machine.

The template is part of the Business plan and above, which also gives you unlimited prints and PDF downloads with no watermark.