Custom canning labels
Pan and I have fallen in love with canning and preserving food in general. With our 3-season garden (including lettuce that began sprouting this past weekend) we have managed to add so much to our pantry.
From strawberry jam and apple butter to collard greens and green beans right on over to salsa and stewed tomatoes we have watched empty jar after empty jar fill with colorful concoctions that will last much of the winter.
But with my OCD and organizational needs it wasn’t enough to simply write on the lids with a sharpie. I need to have some custom labels. Thanks to Val In The Rose Garden
over at Collecting the Moments…one by one
The process itself was quite easy. It took about 2.5 hours total and less than $15 (excluding the jars which we already had).
Materials:
- Photoshop CS2 (or CS3 or CS4 or whatever, really)
- High resolution photos of your canning ingredients or the food within
- Avery white sticker paper
- A color printer
- Scissors (or an exacto knife)
- 2″ hole punch (mine is a Clever Lever craft punch 2012 trailer
)
Steps:
- Create a new document in Photoshop. The size should be 8.5″ wide by 11″ high – standard paper size. 300 dpi for best print. RGB for color.
- Next you will use the ‘extras’ to drag size bars both vertically and horizontally. This will allow you to create 12 – 2″ x 2″ squares.
- Now use the Elipse tool to create a circle.
- Next you fill in the label with your image and some text to create a very unique look.
- Save your document as a .jpg
- Print your newly created labels.
- Next you will want to use your scissors to cut the ‘white space’ around your circles. You want your hole punch to be right on the circle when it is time to “punch.”
- Punch out the labels.
Peel ‘n stick!
November 10th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Nice! Do you do international deliveries?
November 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
If I can send something to Columbia I would love to. What is your mailing address? La Navidad viene!
November 10th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Wonderful! It brings so much love and life into the pantry. I am so glad you could use them!
Have a great Tuesday.
Blessings,
Val
November 14th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I did this too this year, made my own labels and printed them at Staples on label paper, but cut them out by hand! The 2″ hole punch is genius! THANKS!
You can get an idea of what my labels looked like here in this set of photos: http://gardentherapy.ca/how-i-spent-my-summer-vacation/
November 20th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I like pretty labels, too, but I like to put them on the jar instead of the lid. That way, that if the item is one you don’t use up right away (like preserves, opposed to green beans), you still have the label on the item, even if it’s become somehow parted from its original lid.
New to your blog, and like it so far! : )
November 21st, 2009 at 8:14 am
Love love love these labels. You need to start an Etsy shop with these. Good labels are hard to come by! I generally print out ones that tie on for the ones I give as gifts. I use small white labels on the bottoms of the jars or write on the lid for my own personal canned items.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Wow. I’m impressed. You have time to label things with something more than a magic marker?
I’m seriously missing my garden already. We’ll be moving in a few months and we’re swamped with other things to do so we’ve just let it go.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Well, I have to be honest. I truly did this labeling for Christmas gifts rather than for personal identification and organization. However, I did enjoy doing it and will probably do it again when needed. Yeah, OCD, I know.
I can’t wait to see how the RV is progressing Tara. Be sure to post some pics! Happy Thanksgiving.