Glass Jar Labels a.k.a. Total Pantry Domination

I’ve been daydreaming about this project for quite some time now and finally, finally did it.  I LOVE labels and I love seeing everything organized and in its place. I’ve loved labels for a long time. Many years ago, I purchased a label maker and went seriously crazy labeling everything- nothing in the office was safe! It was soooo much fun, for me. Greg on the other hand, wasn’t quite so enthused. That may have had something to do with the label that I printed out and affixed to him, but that’s another story for another day.

Today’s story is one of total pantry domination. No matter how hard I try,  I can never keep it organized. We use a lot of  spices, flours and loose cooking ingredients that all come in different packaging, none of which seals or closes well and no two packages are the same size.

I’m not going to name any names, but three of the four members of this household appear to lack the basic life skills of resealing a bag, properly placing a clip on one or even at times, simply closing a jar. With the proper treats and training schedule, I’m certain Joey and Zelda could outperform them on a variety of simply pantry tasks, with paws alone.

Yesterday was the day. It was a rainy afternoon, which I love and the boys were dispersed, one working, two playing. Time to get organized.

This project turned out to be much easier than I expected. The part that took the longest was deciding what to type on the labels and choosing the right font, which is really important- you’ll be looking at these every day for years and you don’t want to wake up one day wondering how you ever thought Papyrus was such a cool font. The rest was relatively easy.

For some jars, besides putting the ingredient’s name on the labels and a cute description underneath, I also added my favorite recipe for that ingredient on the back. Little jars were used for spices and spice mixes, that have all the goodies for a particular dish already mixed like “Chorizo”,  “Picadillo”,  “Berbere”  “My Favorite Yellow Curry Blend” all of which we like to mix from scratch.

Before I show you how, let it be known that I chose these jars very purposefully. They can be opened and closed with the motor skills of a two year old. I’m not going to take any excuses boys …

Here are the steps (Links provided at the bottom):

Water Slide Decal and Magic Coating Paper purchased at Robin’s Eggcetera
Glass Jars purchased from Hobby Lobby

Happy Labeling!