make a quick princess card/gift tag (or a bear, or a puppy, etc...)

Quickly made from card stock and construction paper for sweet Princess Jocelyn's 6th birthday. I punched a small hole in the left pigtail and tied the card to the gift bag with some pink baker's twine, so it really functioned as both a card and a tag. I love making oversized gift tags this way. No fussing with an envelope. And this is key: no going to the store to buy a card. 

Here's what you do. It is really easy to put together. You can make your princess any color you like, but for simplicity's sake I'll keep the colors as they are.

(A word about circle punches: Get some. I use my simple circle punches in paper crafts a lot. A LOT. So much easier than trying to cut a small circle. As a matter of fact, I just ordered more circle punches in different sizes. By far and away the most useful punches I own. So versatile.)

1) Bring the short sides of a letter sized piece of pink card stock together and fold it in half.

2) Use a compass with a pencil to draw a circle that overlaps the fold very slightly and takes up most of the depth. Keep the compass set at the same width.

3) Cut out the circle from the folded paper so that you have a circular card. I flip it over so that any stray pencil marks will be on the back.

4) Widen the compass ever so slightly and draw another circle that's just a tiny bit bigger than the pink one on orange card stock.

5) Sketch a side part with bangs on the orange circle and cut that shape out. Flip it so the pencil marks are underneath. Rub a glue stick on the back of the orange hair, but don't put any glue on the lowest part of the bangs just in case you need to sneak an eye under there like I did. Adhere the orange hair to the pink circle with the fold of the card at the top of the head.

6) Using the compass or a handy jar lid, draw two smaller circles on the orange paper and cut them out with normal or scallop scissors for pigtails. Flip the pencil marks to the back. Add glue only to the front lower part of the orange pigtails and stick them to the back of the top layer of the card, on either side of the fold.

 

7) Fold a small piece of yellow card stock in half. Trace a half of a simple tiara shape and cut it out. Add glue to the outside edges of the tiara only so that it has some dimension when you place it on the hair.

8) Time to get out your trusty paper punches: 

Use a 1 inch punch to make two white and two dark pink circles. 

Use a 5/8 inch punch to make two blue circles and 1 pink circle. 

Use a slightly smaller 1/2 inch punch to make two black circles.

9) Glue the pink cheeks even with each other on the lower part of the face, almost touching the edges.

10) Glue on the white circles for eyes, overlapping the cheeks, making sure the eyes are even and an equal distance from the edges.

11) Add the blue circles to the eyes. You can make them crossed like mine or looking in any direction. Experiment with it before you commit.

12) Glue the black circles in the middle of the blue circles.

13) Use a pop dot to adhere the pink circle nose centered between the eyes. The pop dot is great for adding a little shadow under the nose.

14) Fold a small piece of red paper in half and cut a tiny arch on the fold to make lips. Unfold and glue the top part of the lips centered under the nose. Keep the lower part unglued so it can add dimension.

15) Now get out your colored pencils if you want to add some finishing touches: 

orange eyebrow(s)

black lashes

black smile

white highlights in the eyes 

and a tiny white highlight on the lower lip (if she's wearing lip gloss)

16) Punch a 1/8 inch hole in one of the pigtails for tying with string if this will be functioning as a gift tag. Write a birthday message on the inside of the card.

It occurred to me that this same basic design could be used for other kinds of characters:

Add circles inside the pigtails, and now you have fuzzy ears. Add a little shock of hair, a circle for a snout and use a larger nose. Boom. Now you have a cute little bear.

Make the ears longer and fold them over, snip off the edge of a circle to add a tongue, and voila, a little puppy card.

Use black and white, add patches behind the eyes (and perhaps a bow tie) and you have a little panda.

Use brown hair and eyes instead, add the pigtails lower down, and now you have a Leia tag. 

And on and on. You get the idea. There are a lot of possibilities. And so many trips you do not have to make to the store for a card.