Recycled Canning Labels

How do you label your canned goods for your own personal pantry? All those cute ideas on Pinterest are great for sharing a jar with a friend, but who really takes that much time to decorate their jars for the home pantry?

I know... we want it to look really cool when we open up a cupboard or the pantry door. All those jars lined up looking pretty. Actually, the food in them usually looks pretty awesome just as it is, but how do you tell the difference between cherry jam and strawberry preserves? Which pickles were the extra spicy? Hey... we've been known to pickle just about everything, including zucchini! Have you ever tried to discern which are the zukes and which are the cukes? Good luck!

Here's an easy way to recycle some brown paper bags to make labels humble enough for the home pantry, but fun enough to actually make the jars look kind of cute... like the trendy boutique jars you see here and there in various shops.

You'll need some basic supplies... things I like to keep on hand in the kitchen anyway.

• a large circle punch (the blue item in the picture below; you can pick it up at a craft store)
• a small hole punch (not a standard hole punch; also from the craft store)
• kitchen twine
• an extra fine sharpie pen
• a fine sharpie pen

• and paper bags, of course! Either grocery sacks or lunch bags will work.

As you can see below, it doesn't matter if the sacks are pre-printed. Just flip the tag over after punching it out with the circular punch. Then use the small hole punch to make two holes for the twine.

Label however you'd like your tags to read, but you really should include the year. It's too hard to remember how old a jar of preserves are later down the road.

Run the string around the top of the jar and come through the two holes from the back side of the tag to the front and tie. And you're done! Do this assembly line style and it won't take long at all.

If you want to dress the jars up just a bit for giving away, just add a paper cupcake liner flipped over the top of the jar (a piece of rolled tape underneath will help hold it while you tie). I found these for $1 at a craft store in all different patterns with cute sayings. Since I only use the Tattler Re-usable Canning Lids for home use (besides being re-useable, they're bpa free!), I try to can a few jars with traditional canning lids. That way friends don't have to worry about returning the Tattler lids.

If you don't like using the string, another way I've labeled is to cut a circle out of the brown paper bag the same size as the canning lid. Add a stamp and what you want it to say and use the screw ring to hold it in place. Works great for everyday in the pantry as well.

There are about a billion ways you could do canning labels, but these really are frugal, quick, and easy. And I'm sure you could make some even cuter! Hope this gets you started. I think for Inspiration Friday, I'll post some more ideas from around the web. It's that time of year, you know.

This post was linked to Carnival of Home Preserving