Handmade hangtags for your crafts can give your product line a special appeal. You have several options when making your own hangtags. One is to download templates from online printing services such as VistaPrint.com. Another is to go to your local print service and use their templates. However, the best way to get your own special hangtag design is to make it yourself and print them on your home printer.

Most hangtags are 2 x 3.5 inches but if you are creating your own hangtags from scratch, you can make them any size that will work best with your products. Once you've decided on a size for your hangtag design, you will need a graphics program, such as Adobe^R Photoshop^R Elements or Photoshop, to create and print your design.

Let's start with a new project in Photoshop Elements 7.

1. Click the Edit button on the Welcome screen to open the editor workspace. From the Menubar, click File, New, Blank New to open the dialog box where you will set the Width to 2 inches, the Height to 3.5 inches and the Resolution to 300 ppi. Name the image file "Hangtag".
   
   
2. If you wish to add your own clip art to the hangtag, click File, Place from the Menubar. Browse to your clip art and double click on the image file. This will place your clip art centered on a new layer of the Hangtag image. Click the checkmark to place the clip art. Repeat this for all the clip art that you want to add to the hangtag design.
   
   We are going to draw our own art from scratch. So step 2 is optional.
   
   
3. One easy way to draw shapes in PE is to use the Custom Shapes tool. To use all the available shapes that come with PE, we need to load them into the program. On the Options Bar, open the Shape panel and click on the double arrow. Choose All Elements Shapes from the menu.
   
   Now we can choose our first shape. In the example, I chose Crop Shape 37.
   
   
4. Choose Crop Shape 37 from the Shape panel. Click on the Foreground color box to set the color for our shape in the Adobe Color Picker. I have chosen a bright orange.
   
   Now click and drag inside the hangtag area to draw the shape. I decided that a gradient fill would look better than the solid orange.
   
   
5. From the Menubar, click Layer, Change Layer Content, Gradient to open the Gradient Fill dialog box. I have chosen the Violet, Green, Orange gradient.
   
   
6. From the Layers panel, add a new layer by clicking the New Layer icon.
   
   
7. Choose another paint drop shape from the Shape panel. I used Crop Shape 34. Draw this shape on the new layer.
   
   
8. Change the layer content to gradient again and choose a different gradient for this shape. I used the Orange, Yellow, Orange gradient.
   
   Now we can add some text. Let's add the name of the product which, for our example, will be "Birdhouses by Nancy". We will also add the price to the hangtag.
   
   
9. Click on the Horizontal Type tool (looks like a T) and set the Foreground color to black in the Color Picker. You can do this quickly by typing 000000 in the box at the bottom of the Color Picker. Click in the top area of the hangtag and type in the name of the product. PE will automatically give you a new layer for your text. Click the checkmark to set the text in place.
   
   I used the Impact font at a size of 30 pt because it is a thick font that will show clearly over the paint spatters. I also put the text a little down from the top so that I will have room to make a hole with a hole punch after I've cut out the hangtags.
   
   
10. I decided to put the price in the small empty area at the bottom right of the design. I set the font size down to 18 pt. Type the price of your product.
    
    I also decided that I wanted a colored background instead of the white.
    
    
11. Go back to the Background layer. Click on that layer to make it the active layer. Now, click on the Paint Bucket tool and set the Foreground color. I set the color to d2d5b7. Click on the Background layer to change the color.
    
    That's all there is to it. We are ready for a test print. Save your hangtag image file in the default .psd file format.
    
    
12. Click File, Print to open the Print dialog box. Keep the default settings and print a test copy.
    
    

If you are happy with the results, you are ready to put several hangtags on an 8.5 x 11 inch template.

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