It's canning time and our local farms have oodles of amazing berries. I started canning last year and one thing I've realized is that I really really hate cleaning old labels off of perfectly good jars and I dislike it enough that I'd rather buy more jars than reuse the existing ones. Madness. And frankly, my handwriting is nothing to write home to mom.
You should see how bad it is when I'm not trying to write neatly
It wasn't until I was putting together a selection of goodies for father's day, that I hit upon a solution for canned goods that I'll be storing for our own use. I'll still use stickers for stuff I give as gifts, since toppers and tags are easy to lose, but for our own use, these work great and they add a nice polished touch to items given as gifts.
Four types of jams/jellies, reusable plastic jar lids and the best gummy bears on earth
For regular sized two piece canning lids, these paper labels sit right atop the lid and under the ring, no glue needed. For other sized jars or single piece lids, you can punch a hole in the label to make a tag, and tie it on with a pretty little ribbon. I used heavy weight paper so that they would be opaque and resistant to humidity but regular printer paper should work too.
Since this solution works well for me, I thought others might like it too, so I've put together a selection of PDFs you can download and use yourself. They come in two styles, 8 toppers to a page.
Download the PDFs from the following options
Label Style |
Description |
All 8 styles on one page. Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Red labels, great for berries Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Orange labels great for marmalade and citrus Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Peach labels, great for peaches, of course Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Yellow labels great for marmalade and citrus Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Green labels, great for pickles and mint jellies Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Purple labels, great for berries and plums Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Burgundy labels, great for berries and plums Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
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Brown labels, great for apple butters and pie filling Download PDF form Download PDF to print and fill in by hand |
Using the fill in forms in Adobe Acrobat Reader
Be sure you have a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. I cannot promise that these forms will work in other programs.
Note: If you have a full version of Adobe Acrobat, you can also go in and change the text formatting and location using the Forms tools. These files are not locked in any way. These files can also be opened and edited in Adobe Illustrator, if you wish to change the color of the decorative elements or change the typeface.
Once you've opened your PDF, it's a simple matter to enter your own customized text into the labels. For any of the PDFs containing just one style of label, all labels will update if you change one of them. For the labels showing 8 different labels on a single page, each label is edited individually.
Once you are done, print out your toppers/tags on heavy paper or card stock and cut them out. They can be glued onto lids or left loose under the ring or you can punch a hole in them and use them as tags.
Happy Canning!
These are wonderful. I did something similar for my wedding. We made salsa as the favors. Thanks so much for sharing!!!!
What? I'm not supposed to just layer the stickers year after year? :-D
That's really thoughtful of you. I have eight jars of nectarine jam that need labels, so you've timed it really well for me. Thank you.
But no pupz in this post. Not good...
thank you SO much! i was just about to start the laborious process of making my own, decidedly plainer, labels and then along you come. Brilliant!
THANK YOU!!!
I usually just write on a square label and slap it on the top. These are so much lovelier!!
Now is probably a bad time to mention I label all my canned goods with masking tape... It peels off the glass easily, in one piece, and without leaving residue.
But it's not nearly as adorable as these labels! I'll be using them for canned gifts from now on, thank you so much! I may point some non-knitting canning-people in your direction too...
I love these. Any chance you'll be making a wide mouth version too?