French Sheet Music Gift Tags

Hello Graphics Fairy friends! I’m Diana from Dreams Factory and I’m happy to be here again to share another DIY project with you! Today I will show you how to make these gorgeous French Sheet Music Gift Tags with white flowers and blue birds that have a super chic overall appearance and a lovely vintage vibe. I included a few additional flowers, a few French ephemera elements and some colored reinforcers that will help you get creative and turn these into unique adornments for all sorts of projects. We’ll complete everything with some lovely crinkle ribbon and a few gourd safety pins that will bring even more charm to the final pieces.

These sheet music tags with stunning white blossoms and blue birds, along with all these small French ephemera cutouts are really beautiful on their own, you won’t have to add too many other embellishments to finish this project. A little bit of coffee-dyed gauze will add dimension and interest to the tags and I’ll show you how to add a subtle touch of gold to bring everything to a whole new dimension.

Here is the beautiful printable that I created for this project, I challenged myself to make the design of each tag different so you can mix and match things as you want. As you can see, I included the French ephemera elements that I mentioned before and a few additional flowers that you can glue on top if you want. The reinforcers are actually blue and green circles at this point, I thought it would be easier to punch holes after gluing them to the tags.

Free Printables:

• white cardstock paper
• home printer
• scissors
• mini distress inks
• blending tool with foams
• gold watercolors – I used my favorite Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors
• small brush
• gourd pins – gold or bronze
• scrap pieces of gauze or cheesecloth
• crinkle ribbon
• paper glue
• washi tape (optional, to further embellish the tags)

Full Step by Step Tutorial:

Start by printing your printable on cardstock paper, then use your scissors to cut the tags and all the other additional elements.

Use distress ink to lightly or heavily distress the tags, depending on your preferences. I used the Walnut Stain mini distress ink, but you can use any other brown that you like to usually use to distress the edges. If you want to add a pop of color to these beauties, you could also use some blue or green distress ink on the edges or a mix of these two, along with the brown.

If you want, you can just apply some distress ink on the edges (the tag on the right) or you can take things further and also crinkle the paper here and there to give the tags even more of a vintage feel (the tag on the left).

I usually prefer to also crinkle the paper here and there, fold the paper all over the edges or the corners and then apply more distress ink on the creases. Unfold the folded paper afterward and try to straighten it a little bit with your fingers when you are done.

All these small tricks will break some of the fiber in the paper making it look less stiff and sharp. We want it to look a little bit crinkled to remove its newness so we can bring in the vintage goodness!

You know I usually love adding a touch of gold to my projects, so if you want, you can use a little bit of gold watercolor to do that here. Use a really small brush and only a small amount of gold to paint the middle of the flowers. Try not to just brush the paint there, we don’t want to cover all the stamens, but rather emphasize their beauty. Use small dotted moves while tilting your brush to a 45-degree angle to mimic the shape and the direction of the stamens. Keep in mind that we still want to see the design underneath so we don’t lose any of the charm of these delicate flowers!

Use scrap pieces of gauze, cheesecloth or even lace to embellish the tags, then add some of the French ephemera elements on top. You can place the elements horizontally on the lower side of the tags or vertically on the sides, according to your preferences. If you want, you can go outside the lines of the tags while gluing some of these French ephemera beauties to add more interest.

You can then glue the colored circles on top, in the middle of the tags.

Use a paper punch (I have a leather punch that I like to use) to punch holes in the middle of the circles to turn them into reinforcers. If you have other reinforced holes that you would like to use, you can!

I used coffee-dyed crinkle ribbon to further embellish the tags and some bronze gourd pins to hold them in place. I initially wanted to also use some washi tape here and there, on the edges, but I liked them better this way so ended up not using it.

The finished pieces swept me off my feet, I was completely in love with how these beauties turned out!

Crinkling the paper while distressing it will also imprint uniqueness to your tags, each piece will be different and one more beautiful than the other!

I would say that these are one of those tags that are always great to have around, so make sure you make a batch or two to have them on hand! Especially these absolutely gorgeous white flower ones that are pretty universal and just go well with everything!

But let’s not forget the stunning blue bird tags, these too are great to have around for when in need!

You might think that maybe adding that touch of gold on top of the flowers won’t change the appearance of the tags too much, but I strongly suggest trying it. You will be amazed to see how beautiful they look while holding them in your hand and how much elegance that subtle touch of gold will bring! I had the feeling that the flowers were almost instantly brought to life while painting them with gold, you’ll see what I mean when you add those first paintbrush strokes on top!

I’m sure you are already contemplating all sorts of ideas on how to use these beauties and envision them as great additions to your junk journals! You can use them with other scrap pieces of torn paper, French ephemera cutouts or other small embellishments like gold circles to decorate your journal pages in a chic way.

I love adding small gold embellishments like these gold metallic bookmarks, the tags look like they are wearing their finest pieces of jewelry in a super chic and stylish way. You could also add some of these gorgeous French ephemera tabs that we created a while back – check this DIY Junk Journal Embellishments project if you want to learn how to make them.

Don’t forget that you can add the additional flowers that I included in the free printable as small embellishments to your tags. Leave some of the leaves hanging outside the edges to add interest and dimension, they will bring even more charm to the final pieces!

Now you’ll have the perfect French sheet music tags with white flowers, blue birds and a subtle, but oh-so-elegant touch of gold to cover all your creative needs. Use them to embellish your junk journals in a stylish way, use them as bookmarks or simply turn them into the perfect companion for all your last-minute gifts for any special occasions. Hang them by your drawers in your craft room or why not, use them as decorative elements to add a touch of chicness to your home.

You might also like our French Lilac Gift Tags HERE. 

Happy crafting,

Diana | by Dreams Factory