Decoders

Every year we do something a bit different for Christmas (see this post and this post) and one of the things it usually ends up being is how I tag the gifts. This year I made the tags so you had to use a decoder to read them (not really since you could read them if you held them at the right angle, but the idea was good originally:). To make them I simply typed my text in red and printed it out, then I made a whole page of turquoise x's then ran the red print through the printer multiple times shifting the margins up or down or left or right until the red was sufficiently covered. To make the decoders I printed a super-duper-decoder pattern on cardstock then glued some blue cellophane in a little window I cut. Really easy. However after I had everything all prepared I started worrying about early arisers who would decode before it was time so I made the tag a little packing slip (put behind another piece of cellophane with all sides taped down).The other thing that I did with gifts this year is only put a few presents out and they were given a tag to decode as to where the next set of presents were (they were in the dryer, in the Legos and in the van.) Turned out pretty fun.