I was getting ready for a birthday party for this 1 year old I know.  Our conversations are one sided, he is a little short, and fails to reciprocate on high fives.  Still, he has more hair than I do, and a pretty cool set of parents.  So we got him a gift.  I was bagging up said gift when I thought of a cool way to add a little personal touch to the tag.

I dug around my scrap bin and came up with some thin maple I had from a resaw project.  Some quick hand hand planing and I had a really thin sheet of wood to make a tag out of.  I think it was about 1/16″ to start with and was a pretty consistent 1/32″ when I was done.  Still heavier than card stock, but a pretty impressive thickness

I cut it out and gave it those beveled tag edges along with a whole in the center.  I wrote out the message in sharpie and gave it a quick spray lacquer coat.  That was an error in order of operations.  The solvent in the spray lacquer lifted the sharpie and let it bleed out.  It isn’t horrible, but is noticeable.  Next time, spray first, let dry, then write the message.

My miserable handwriting is probably the worst offense.  Do they teach handwriting classes for adults?  I might have to plan out some resawing and make a stack of these tags.  Buying a small section of veneer would yield a lot of cards for a little cost, but I would rather start with some 3/4″ stock and do the milling myself.  Yet another project for the woodworking pile.  I need to craft more time so I can get out in the shop regularly.  I have been terrible this year.