Welcome, September! It’s hard to believe we’re falling into the last few months of the year. It seems like time is just racing along these days! I’m sure you can relate, right?

Last month, I spent a spectacular few days in the California wine country with friends. You see, I turned 50 this year and my sister is turning 60 tomorrow (Happy Birthday, Beth!), so we wanted to do something really fun. Here is one of my favorite photos from our time there:

Opel Sisters Wine Country Trip

While we were gone, some sweet friends from church watered out flowers every day and gathered our mail. We wanted to thank them with some gifts because we were super thankful, and the flowers looked great when we finally came home!

As a paper crafter, it just isn’t possible for me to toss a gift in a gift bag without adding a personal handmade touch. So, I set about making tags for each person using my paper crafting supplies.Gift Tags by Susan R. Opel for Scrapbook

The ten-year-old twins’ gift cards went in plain white bags, so I was able to match their tags to their gift cards nestled inside. Brooke loves cacti, and she simply BEAMED when she saw hers. That totally made my day. I tried to keep the tags flat so that they could be used as bookmarks.

Twin Gift Tags by Susan R. Opel for Scrapbook & Cards Today

15-year-old Autumn’s bag featured bright colors and metallic gold, so for her tag, I added pretty florals as a complement to the bold stripes on the bag. And how fortunate that her name is a season? I’ve got a die for that!

Autumn Gift Tag by Susan R. Opel for Scrapbook & Cards Today

The bag for mom and dad held a bottle of my favorite cabernet, and those bold gold dots and sentiment on the bag inspired my sophisticated tag. I was pretty excited when I found the Sip Sip Hooray sentiment from Avery Elle in my stash. Perfectly fitting! By heat embossing the sentiment in white on vellum, I was able to still allow the metallic gold and gold glitter cardstocks to show through.

Sip Sip Hooray Gift Tag by Susan R. Opel for Scrapbook & Cards Today

I love sharing handmade kindness with wonderful friends, and the challenge of making tags to match the bags was right up my alley. I hope you find inspiration from a few of my ideas!

Here’s to a fantastic September, and we simply cannot WAIT for you to see our Fall issue which will hit newsstands in less than three weeks! Join us here tomorrow as we share the first peek of the cover!

~ Susan R. Opel, Editor-in-Chief, Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine