Making gift tags using business cards can be as simple as taking blank business cards and writing on them by hand. However, you can make very nice, personalized gift tags by inserting pictures and text into a blank business card template. The process has several steps to it, but once you get the hang of it, it is actually very simple. And in fact, once you learn these skills, it will be very easy to advance your abilities to make really wonderful gift tags!
This article provides step-by-step instructions for creating simple gift tags using any picture (usually a “jpg” file) or any other graphic that you want to insert.
1. To begin, you will need to open Word, and then create a new document of blank business cards. On your toolbar, go to Tools, Labels and Envelopes.
2. Now, hit the Options button.
3. Select the Business Card template that is listed on your package of business cards. Most brands of business cards, even “generic” or store brand business cards give a compatible Avery template number. For the purposes of this tutorial, I am using business cards that are compatible with Avery 8371. When you have selected the template that you need, click OK.
4. This takes you back to the pop-up window as shown in Step 2 of the illustrated tutorial. Click on New Document. You now have a blank page of business cards (there are five rows of two side by side (left-side and right-side) business cards. Look at the ruler at the top of the blank document and you can see that it is divided into two columns. The ruler that runs down the left-hand side of the document is broken at the division between the rows.
At this point, you could simply insert some text in the blank business card, copy it, and then paste it 9 more times, and print a very simple gift tag. The example in the illustrated instructions gives you an idea of what a simple Christmas gift tag might look like.
Now you have a rough idea of what to do in order to open a blank page of business cards. Next, you will learn how to insert a picture (jpg file or other graphic) into a blank business card and personalize it.
First, you will need to insert the picture (image or graphic) that you want to appear on the gift tag.
1. Go to your toolbar, click on Insert, and then click on From File.
2. Find the picture that you want to insert (look wherever it is that you have the picture or image saved). Select the picture that you want to insert and then click OK.
3. The image now appears in the top-left blank business card.
4. Go to Print Layout view so that you can see the rulers along the top and bottom to show you where you are in the business card.
5. Now your screen has one picture inserted in the first, top-left blank business cards. (Refer to the illustrated instructions to see what it looks like.)
6. If you don’t change the size of the picture, you might not have much room to write anything on the card or to insert a text box. To make the picture smaller, click on it (anywhere on the actual picture, it doesn’t matter where), and a black box around it will appear, with small black boxes in the corners and in the middle of each side.
7. Click on a corner. The cursor changes to a two-headed arrow. Hold the mouse button and drag the corner toward the middle of the picture. This will make the picture smaller. Drag the corner until the picture is the size that you want it to be.
8. Now click anywhere outside of the picture, and the black sizing box will go away.
9. Now the picture is small enough that you have room to the right to insert text, or simply handwrite in your own message. Of course, you see here that you only have one picture on the page, and there are actually 10 business cards on that page. You will have to copy this and paste it in 9 times. Use this process only if you want to make gift tags that only have the picture in it, no text.
Right click on the picture. That is, position the cursor anywhere on the picture, and hit the “other button” on your mouse (it is usually the right-side button, unless you are left-handed and you have re-configured your mouse). Now select Copy from the list.
10. After you have clicked on Copy, click anywhere outside of the picture to remove the black box. Now, click anywhere in the blank business card to the right (look at the ruler at the top, it shows you where the margin is for the right-hand-side business card.
11. Go to your toolbar, click on Edit, and then click on Paste.
12. Now you have a picture in the two top business cards (remember, there are five rows of two cards to a sheet, so in all you need to insert a total of 10 pictures).
13. The last step will be to copy this row, and paste it into the remaining four rows to make a whole sheet of gift tags with this picture on them. To do that, position the cursor to the left of the top left business card and move the cursor around a little until it turns into a white arrow. When you have that arrow, click, and both hearts will be highlighted.
14. Just as did in Step 9, right click anywhere on the black highlighted portion and click on copy.
15. Click anywhere on a white space, and the highlighting will go away. Now move your cursor down to the next row, along the left-hand side, until the cursor changes into a white arrow next to the blank business card space. A black line should appear.
16. Paste in the row that you copied, using the same procedure as Step 11
Now do that 3 more times, until you have five rows of gift tags with this picture on each tag. Insert the blank business card sheet into your computer (the same way that you would load paper into your computer) and print it.
Congratulations! You now know how to use business cards to make simple gift tags that include a picture!
