Jewelry Hang Tags and Earring Cards

© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved

Jewelry hang tags and earring display cards give your work a professional, designer appearance. They're one of the most important parts of your overall professional jewelry packaging.

Jewelry hang tags and earring cards can be found in supply catalogs and websites, and you can buy them pretty inexpensively. But for a more professional look and better jewelry sales, your own unique jewelry hang tags and earring cards add a top-notch touch to your jewelry packaging. They are easy to make yourself, or to have made for you, and they don’t need to cost more than a few cents per card—a good investment when you consider the boost they will give your jewelry business!

Here you can see the front and back of a previous version of my jewelry cards, if it helps give you a starting point for making yours. I also recommend thoroughly researching the jewelry and earring cards available from jewelry suppliers (check catalogs and the Web), to get design ideas for your own unique jewelry hang tags.

Your jewelry hang tags and earring cards should have your logo or the name of your jewelry business, plus all of your contact info (website URL, e-mail address, phone number). You can put your contact info on the back of the card to keep the front uncluttered.

Including this info makes you seem like a legitimate business that will be around for a while, and it implies that you stand behind your products—-that you can be contacted if the customer has any problem with your jewelry.

But even more important, customers usually hang on to custom jewelry hang tags and earring cards, and keep them somewhere in their jewelry box. And very often since they have your contact info handy, customers will contact you or shop on your website when they want to buy more jewelry or have custom pieces made. Customers may misplace your business card, but they tend to keep the unique, custom display cards that came with their handcrafted jewelry!

Jewelry hang tags and earring cards should also list the materials (stones, metals, etc.) used in the piece of jewelry. And because jewelry is an emotional purchase, consider adding any “romantic” information that would be interesting and increase the perceived value of the piece. For example, “Made from vintage glass beads discovered in a 50-year-old trunk”, or “One-of-a-kind bone pendant hand carved in Alaska”, or “Hand made in a traditional Celtic pattern”. Include a few sentences about your craft if that would be interesting to customers.

Traditional gemstone lore used in a jewelry piece is another thing you can write on display cards to increase the jewelry’s sentimental value.

(Note: Anything in your gemstone lore that sounds like a medical claim should be accompanied by a disclaimer in small print, stating that your jewelry is not intended to take the place of professional medical care. You may want to double-check the wording of your disclaimer with an attorney, to be sure it will keep you from getting in hot water if someone misunderstands your intentions!)

If you make your own earring cards and jewelry hang tags, choose your size carefully. You’ll want to be sure they fit on your earring display racks (if you use any), and that they fit inside your other jewelry packaging without having to be folded—unless the fold is part of the card’s design. A little measuring now can save you a lot of frustration after you make the cards! :o) The design should be an excellent match with your other jewelry packaging.

If you make your own jewelry hang tags, be sure to use the heaviest cardstock that will work in your printer or copy machine. A paper-cutter will cut your cards apart much more quickly and evenly than scissors. You can design your cards in your own custom sizes using a spreadsheet or your wordprocessor’s tables feature.

Important Note: Use only acid-free paper or cardstock for your jewelry tags and earring cards. Anything else will wind up making your metals tarnish quickly!

You can also have your jewelry hang tags and earring cards made and cut professionally for as little as a penny per card. I used to do all my cards on my inkjet printer, with the stones printed via printer also, but the paper-cutter part became too time consuming for me, and I really hated doing it!

So now I have them printed up for me by a local copy shop--a big batch for sterling silver and another big batch for GF. For earrings, I use the same cards but punch holes with an awl just below "sterling silver", and write the stones artistically up the side.

I took my earring card / jewelry tag file on disk to the copy shop and had them print out and cut apart a few thousand 2-sided cards of each sterling silver and GF. Now I just quickly write the stones by hand, and I think it gives the packaging a nice handcrafted touch. At least, that's my excuse for not printing the whole thing on my printer anymore! :o) And these new 2-sided cards cost me about a penny apiece.

If you have your cards done by a copy shop, I recommend explaining to the person who will take care of your order exactly how you will be using the finished cards. Bring a sample of the card and a pair of earrings with you, and show them how you hang your earrings on the cards.

Describe how you use and display the cards with your other jewelry pieces, and how the cards are handled at shows. Bring a jewelry pouch or jewelry box--whatever you use for packaging your jewelry after the sale--and show how the card works with your packaging.

The copy person may have some great ideas for you once they understand how the jewelry hang tags or earring cards will be used. I was very lucky to have a creative copy person who thought my project was interesting, and suggested some things that made my cards turn out even better than I expected!

Here's another fantastic idea for making jewelry hang tags and earring cards: Make Jewelry Hang Tags from Business Cards - Pamela Vale shows you how to make professional-looking jewelry hang tags and earring cards from business cards. Includes photos and instructions for making your own elegant, economical, custom jewelry tags.

For hanging your earring cards on display racks, you can purchase self-adhesive earring hangers to stick on the back of the cards. (Last I checked, these self-adhesive earring card hangers are available from these jewelry suppliers: Rings and Things, Rio Grande, and JewelrySupply.com.)

They are a clear plastic hook (and they come in about 3 different widths to fit different size earring cards), with a peel-off adhesive edge that you stick to the top of the back of your card. Then you just hang the card on the bars of your earring display.

I have also seen jewelry artists punch a neat round hole in the top center of their cards and hang them on a display that has hooks.

An earring rack loaded up with custom jewelry cards is very eye-catching and professional looking! Anyway, that's why the backs of my jewelry tags / earring cards have that empty space at the top--when I use them as earring cards, that's where I stick the plastic hanger.

Be inventive, artistic, and consider your jewelry style when buying or designing your jewelry hang tags! :o)

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