How to Design Gift Tags With Procreate and Spoonflower

From furoshiki to custom gift tags, this holiday season we’re letting our presents do the talking. Our secret weapon this year? A swatch of Peel and Stick Wallpaper! Using her go-to design app Procreate, Spoonflower’s graphic designer Alexis is making a visit to the blog to show how she’s personalizing her presents with custom gift tags for the holidays. Whether you download the free template* and make it all your own or follow along step-by-step using Alexis’ festive icons, the only limit is your imagination. Did we mention you can fit 46 labels on a $8.00 swatch of Peel and Stick Wallpaper. That’s just $0.16 a label — happy holidays to you!

*Gift tag template for personal use only.

No time to design your own gift tags? Shop the Marketplace for gift tag designs by the Spoonflower community.

Part 1: Download the Gift Tag Template

From your iPad download the gift tag template files. In this folder you’ll find two Procreate files and one Photoshop file*.

To open the gift tag templates in Procreate:

1. Tap on the file.
2. Tap on the three dots in the upper right hand corner.
3. Tap “Open In”.
4. Select “Copy to Procreate” from the list of apps, you may have to scroll through the list to find it.

5. Procreate will automatically import and open the file in the app.
6. Exit Procreate and open the folder link again and repeat the process for the remaining Procreate file.
7. Both files should now be in Procreate.

*The Photoshop file is included in case you don’t have an iPad and want to use a computer to make the tags.

Part 2: Set Up Your Procreate File

There are multiple sticker sheet options. To keep all of the stickers available for use again, I suggest making a duplicate of the WovenGiftTags-Templates file so you always have a complete file to reference.

1. To duplicate the file, make sure you’ve closed it and are in the gallery view. If you are in the file, tap on “Gallery” in the top left corner, from here swipe your finger to the left over the file and you’ll see three options: Share, Duplicate and Delete. Tap “Duplicate” and it’ll create a copy of the file.

2. Open the newly duplicated file. Tap on the layers icon in the top right corner of the Procreate app interface. In the layer panel you’ll see there are 6 folders:

3. Determine which of the templates you want to use and delete the other layers you don’t need. To delete a group, go to the layers panel and swipe to the left on a group and tap “delete”. For our example we’ll be using the Assorted Tags layer with a few of each of the sticker types.

Part 3: Customize the Gift Tags

At this point you can go about customizing the tags in one of two ways:

To illustrate your own gift tags:

1. Create a new layer by opening the layers panel in the top right of the file and click the plus sign in the top right corner.
2. Illustrate whatever you’d like on top of each sticker.
3. To add text, tap on the action menu in the top left (wrench icon), locate the “Add” button and tap “Add Text” from here you can customize your greetings.

To use the icon set provided:

1. Navigate to the Icon_Set file and using three fingers swipe down on the canvas. This will bring up a panel with the option to Cut, Copy, Copy All, Cut & Paste or Copy & Paste the icons.
2. Select the “Copy” option.

3. Once the icon layer has been copied, exit the file and navigate to the duplicated WovenGiftTags-Templates you created earlier and open it. 

4. Once on the template file, swipe down on the canvas with three fingers and this time select “Paste”. The copied layer from the icons set file will be put onto its own layer in the tag template file.

5. Now we’re going to begin selecting different icons to place on each of the stickers. We’ll start with customizing the circular stickers first. For this process tap the selection tool (ribbon icon) in the top menu bar and use your finger or Apple Pencil to draw around whatever element you want to add to your sticker. We’re going to select the wreath icon, so draw a circle all the way around the wreath and when coming back to the beginning, tap on the grey circle to complete the selection.

6. Once the element is fully selected you’ll see grey diagonal lines outside of your selection. Swipe down with three fingers and select “Cut & Paste” to simultaneously cut your selection from the icon layer and paste it onto a new layer.

7. Tap on the move tool (arrow icon) while on the new layer where the wreath has been pasted and drag it on top of one of the circular stickers. If needed, resize the wreath by dragging in or out from a corner to make the element bigger or smaller.When it’s in the spot you want and at the size you want, tap on the move tool again to confirm the transformation.

8. To add “To” and “From” text, go ahead and select the color you want your text to be from the color palette in the top right corner of the screen. You can always change it later if needed, but I find it easier to pick it beforehand. Add text by tapping on the action menu (wrench icon) and under the “Add” button, select “Add Text”. This will create a new text layer.

9. Now you’ll see a text box pop up with a keyboard. Type out whatever greeting you’d like and then click “Edit Style” in the top right corner of the keyboard. This will reveal a panel where you can customize the font, style, size, alignment and other attributes. I’m using Courier Regular at 20pt.

10. Once you’re happy with the way your text looks and you’ve customized it how you want tap “Done” or anywhere else on the canvas to hide the keyboard and deselect your text box.

11. Tap the move tool again to resize and reposition your text box as needed on your sticker. Once that’s done, we’ll want to group the layers (the wreath and text layers) to keep things organized. Open up the layers panel and tap on one of the layers. Next, swipe to the right on the other layers you want in the group—they should all be highlighted—and tap “Group” at the top right of the layers panel.

12. Now from here you can either repeat this process and customize the next sticker using a different icon or you can duplicate the group you’ve just created to make all the circular stickers look the same, which is what I’m going to do. With the new group selected swipe to the right and tap “Duplicate”.

13. Use the move tool to drag the new duplicated group to the next blank sticker, making sure “Magnetics” is activated under your move tool settings to it keeps the elements aligned as you’re repositioning it.

Repeat this process of duplicating the groups until you have all the circle stickers complete.

Other Methods of Customization

I follow the process above for each of the other sticker shapes, but there are some additional ways you can customize and add some fun flair to make your gift tags uniquely yours!

1. Change the Sticker Background Color

If you want to change the color of a sticker so it’s not plain white, you can! In the layers panel tap on the layer with all the tag shapes. Duplicate the layer so you can always access the original if needed (swipe to the right on the layer and tap “Duplicate”). Go into your colors panel on the top right corner of the interface and select whatever color you want for the background color of your sticker. Next, tap and hold on the circle color icon and drag from there to whatever sticker you want to fill with a background color and lift your finger from the screen. This will drop that color onto that shape and fill it with that color.

2. Add Background Elements

To make a background that fits inside the sticker like the example below, follow these steps.

Make a new layer directly above the template layer with all the sticker shapes on it. Pick a color and brush, draw a line or whatever element you want to add on top of the sticker while on the new layer. Once that’s done go back to the layers panel and double tap (tap twice quickly) on that layer to bring up an options panel and select “Clipping Mask”. This will clip the drawing we’ve just made to the shapes on the layer below. In my case I went over a little bit and it’s visible on the sticker next to it, so I went back to erase it.

Pro(create) Tip: Trying to make a perfectly straight line? When you’re drawing a line, don’t lift up your Apple Pencil (or finger) when you get to the end. Hold it for a second and it’ll snap and allow you to drag the end point wherever you want. When it’s in the place you want, simply lift your pencil to place it.

3. Add a Border or Frame

For a border or frame, make sure your sticker template is duplicated and then create a new layer, pick a brush & color and draw a border shape on the new layer. Fill it in by dragging the color from the color panel to the shape. Then open the layers panel and clicking on the image of the new layer select “Clipping Mask” from the option menu. Now you have a fun border that you can add icons or text to the center of!

You can also get extra fancy with your frames and add more decoration. I like doing adding masks to my border layers so that if I change my mind I can always remove it without destroying the original shape. To try it, go back to your layers panel and click on the image of your border layer to open the option menu and select “Mask”, this will add a new layer that is tied to that layer. Make sure you’re on the new layer mask and switch your brush color to pure black. With masks you’ll use black and white; black hides and white reveals. Now you can draw on your mask layer and it’ll hide parts of the border. In my case I made some stripes. But if I decide I don’t like that at a later point, I can always turn off or delete the mask and the original shape will be there. It’s a great tool for trying new things you’re not sure you want to commit to yet!

Part 4: Upload to Spoonflower

Once your gift tags are complete, it’s time to upload to Spoonflower!

1. Save your gift tag file as a JPG. In the Actions menu (wrench icon) tap “Share” and then “JPEG” from here you can choose where to save it
I typically AirDrop it to my computer, but you can also tap “Save Image” to save it directly to your camera roll and upload directly to Spoonflower right from your iPad.
2. Login to your Spoonflower account and upload your file.
3. To create adhesive gift tags, you’ll want to order your design on a 2′ x 1′ swatch of Spoonflower’s Peel and Stick Removable Woven Wallpaper.
4. Once you receive your swatch of wallpaper, cut out and stick your labels onto beautifully wrapped presents!

Looking for more unique ways to jazz up gift wrapping this season? Try out these six gift wrapping techniques inspired by Furoshiki.