Upcycled Clothing Tags Make the Best Gift Tags

Clothing tags painted with acryclic paints.

You know those little tags that get cut off every time you buy something new? Turns out, they make the most surprisingly good gift tags — and all it takes is a little bit of paint.

This is one of those ideas that sounds almost too simple, but the result is genuinely charming. The tags already have a nice weight to them, they’re the perfect size, have a little hole at the top, which makes them ready for ribbon or twine to tie on to a gift, or a bottle of wine.

The Supplies You’ll Need:

Clothing tags in wooden berry crate, gingham ribbon, raffia twine, tubes of paint on white marble background.

Clothing tags as is and some painted with green and little daisies.

Clothing tags
Paints (washable) and brushes
Q-tips (to use for dots)
Ribbons or twine
Scissors (My favorite pair I use for everything)

Here’s what you do:

Paints in small cups, paints in tray, tags with some painted green.

Tags, paints, some painted green partially with daisies with yellow centers.

Grab your tags and lay them flat. Give each one a coat of paint right over the printed text — one or two coats depending on how opaque you want it. Leave some white space to write a message. Then go back and add a design.

I’m more crafty than artisitc, so my designs are always pretty simple. Stripes, dots, little flowers, things like that, but you can do whatever you want. I love that the tags are all different sizes, like little canvases just waiting to be made into something new.

No cutting, no gluing, no Cricut required.

Paint the first layer, then add a design

The painted-over look is actually part of the appeal. You can see the faint ghost of the original tag underneath, which gives it that layered, intentional feel that I love. It’s showing that you repurposed something in order to make an upcycled gift tag.

I like using acryclic paints because the coverage is great and it dries quickly, but honestly any paint with decent opacity will do the job. Allow the first layer to dry, then start adding layers with design. For the tags, above, I had the popular Marimekko Unikko design in my head.

Keep a little stack of painted tags in your gift wrap drawer and you’ll never scramble for a gift tag again. They look especially good tied onto kraft paper with a simple piece of twine, or gingham ribbon — nothing fancy.

Sometimes the best ideas are the ones just about to end up in the trash bin.