Hapa Zome Flower Gift Tags

During garden season, we love the idea of finishing off the perfect present with a handmade tag like the ones above. We created them using the technique of hapa-zome, which literally translates to “leaf-dyeing” in Japanese; artist India Flint coined the phrase when she began hammering the natural pigments of plant specimens to create an image transfer onto cloth. Stylist Alli M. used this process to create beautiful gift tags that are the perfect a topper for a gift or bouquet; the technique can  also be applied to card making and any number of paper or cloth crafts. Read on to learn how to make hapa zome gift tags in just a few easy steps!

What You'll Need:
Plant or flower cuttings
Paper gift tags
Watercolor paper
Rubber mallet

1. Collect a few flower or plant specimens in a variety of colors – Alli chose pansies.

2. Choose a paper tag (or cut your own) and place a sheet of paper beneath it.

3. Place the plant specimen face down on the tag, then place a piece of watercolor paper on top of the plant.

4. Lightly hammer with a rubber mallet - Alli recommends doing a few practice tags to get the feel for how hard to hammer.

5. Gently peel away the paper and let the image transfer dry before adding a short and sweet message.