Supplies:
- Metal gift tags. I purchased mine from Dollar Tree. They came in a pack of three with a few different styles to choose from.
- Light weight spackle. I used a small amount of spackle. So, I also bought the small container from Dollar Tree, since I did not need much.
- Paint. I used a tan and a red acrylic paint.
- Small containers to put and mix spackle and paint
- Paint brush. I used both a thick bristle and a soft bristle for different pieces. I also used a plastic spatula mostly for mixing my spackle.
- Small wooden bead for Santa’s nose. I just painted on a nose for Mrs. Clause.
- Extra pieces to decorate your pieces. I cut off a few fake leaves and some small metal bells I bought from JoAnn Fabrics. You could use a variety of different items to add a little extra detail to your pieces. Use what you have.
- Gorilla glue or hot glue to glue down extra decorative pieces.
I started out by adding a little tan acrylic paint and light weight to a small paper dixie cup. The spackle was a bit to white for my liking, that is why I added the tan paint to tone it down a little. I used a plastic spatula I had to mix the paint and spackle together. Feel free to make your beard and other pieces different colors. I used the spackle and paint mix for Santa’s beard and mustache, as well as for Mrs. Clause’s hat and some fur on her coat. You could also mix us different colors of spackle if you want Mrs. Clause to have different colors then Santa.
The spackle will dry fairly quickly but you should still have plenty of time to work with it. You can always mix more if it becomes too dry before you apply it to your gift tag. I started off with Santa, and applied my spackle to the first metal gift tag. I tried to make a beard and mustache for my Santa. I ended up changing it in the end. You will have to let me know which way you like better, the full beard or with the coat showing? I also added a little strip of the spackle for the edge of Santa’s hat. For Mrs. Clause, I added the spackle round the top white her hat would end. I also added some for her coat.
Before I changed the beard After I covered the coat
I scooped the spackle on the areas I wanted it, then used a paint brush to try and shape it to my liking. I also used a stiff bristle paint brush and dabbed it up and down on the spackle to add some more texture to it. I will add even more detail later with some paint once the spackle is dry.
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While I waited for my spackle to dry, I did my first coat of acrylic paint directly on the metal areas. The metal is smooth, which makes the paint not stick well to it. So, you will need a few coats of paint to cover the metal areas. The first layer of paint creates a textured surface for the other layers of paint to stick better too. I recommend waiting till the first layer of paint is fully dry before adding more layers of paint, otherwise you will just scrape off the first layer of paint. I did about three layers of paint on each section. I painted the face tan, and the coat and hat areas red. My red was a little too bright, so I toned it down by mixing red and maroon together.

While I waited from my spackle and paint layers to dry, I painted a small wood bead tan for Santa’s nose. I could have sed wood filler to fill in the hole in the bead, but I decided it was fine with the hole, but this is an extra step you could do.
Once everything was dry, I painted on some eyes and a nose for Mrs. Clause. If you do not like your face the first time, then you can always paint over it and try again. I then added a little light pink for their cheeks. Next, I took a stiff bristle paint brush and got just a little bit of black paint on it. I even whipped off some extra black paint. I then lightly dabbed it all over my pieces, except for the face areas. This just gave the pieces a little more character.

Lastly, I added a few extra decorative pieces. I added two small red buttons to Mrs. Clauses’ coat, which I also added the light black spackle look too. I also added a little greenery and a small metal bell to each of their hats. I glued all of these pieces down with Gorilla glue, because I did not want to deal with hot glue strands or get out my hot glue gun.
Without black speckling Without extra decorations Before I changed the beard
These metal tags also came with some twine, which I used to tie all of my pieces together, but you could also cut the twine and string them individually. I think these pieces turned out very cute. They would look nice as ornaments on a tree or even sitting in a tier tray or on a shelf. Do you like that I changed the bear at the end to cover Santa’s coat? I just felt like the mustache did not look like a mustache. With the third metal tag, I used my Cricut Maker and the engraving tool to engrave a design I made. This metal had a lot of color to it, and my design was very detailed. So, it is a bit difficult to see the engraved design.
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