I have a little bit of an obsession for all things Asian. I have a large collection of Japanese and Chinese stamp images, and am fortunate to live in an area with diverse Asian communities, including Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Indian.
A few months ago, one of my deco groups chose tea as the theme for monthly swaps, and I came up with a pattern for tea bag wrappers to use as my pages. This week, I turned that pattern into one for a tea bag tag in its own wrapper envelope, with a little tab hanger.
The first thing you’ll need to get started on your tea bag tags is a pattern, which is here
I reccomend saving this image to your hard drive, and printing it from graphics software rather than directly from the web. On this pattern, black lines are cutting lines, and pale gray indicates a fold line. You can either print this pattern directly onto your background paper, or print it onto cardstock, cut it out, and trace it onto various papers.
Once you have your pattern printed or transferred onto your background papers, cut it out, and fold it on the lines indicated. You’ll end up with an envelope, a two-sided tag, and a two-sided tab.
Unfold your pieces, and decorate as you wish. I stamped mine with red dye inks, and also glued a vintage tea label onto the front of my wrapper. While you’re decorating, just remember to refold your piece every so often, especially if you’re doing a lot of collage. This will help train your decorative papers to accept their final, folded shape.
Once decorated, your pieces need just a bit of gluing. Glue the sides of the wrapper to close them. About an eighth of an inch along the length of either side is sufficient. For the tag insert, glue a piece of floss or string between the folded layers (the folded edge of this piece will be the bottom). Attach the tab to the other end of the floss, sandwiching it between the two folded layers (again, the folded edge will be the bottom of this piece).
That’s it! These are quick and simple pieces to make. I’m planning to throw a stack of pre-cut pieces on my work table, so while my stamps and inks are in use for other projects, I can stamp up a few extras at the same theme.
Bonus: here are some printable sheets of tea bag tags I’ve done for some of the holiday countdowns!
