Custom Mason Jar Labels

I love canning. My mom taught me how to make jam when I was a teenager and she learned how from her mom and her grandma. Growing up, we had a plum and an apricot tree in our backyard, so when June and July came around and the fruit was ripe, we'd hurry to pick the ripe fruit before it fell or the birds got to it. Then we'd spend an afternoon cleaning, pitting, crushing and stirring pots of molten sugar and fruit. The reward at the end of the day was the satisfying POP when the jars sealed and snacking on the leftovers. 

If you've never made jam before, it's fairly simple and lots of fancy tools aren't required. I didn't own a water bath canner until this year. I just processed jars in my big soup pot. I don't own a pressure canner either. I love this post and send it to anyone who's interesting in canning for the first time. It's a great place to get the basics. 

Half pint mason jars are my favorites to use, (both in standard and wide mouth, but in late summer, they sell out pretty quickly in my local stores, so I will order from Amazon, and save from having to drive from store to store hoping some are still in stock.

Every year my husband and I typically give whatever we canned as gifts to friends, coworkers and family, so the jars naturally NEED some sort of fun label. I created a couple of new ones this year and I added them to my Etsy shop for purchase.

Thanks to a local friend sharing the wealth of New Haven Peaches on her tree, I made a few batches of peach jam and peach vanilla butter. 

Then I created a few different versions of the label for whatever else someone may be canning. I have watercolor graphics of many, many different fruits and I'll adjust the background color to make sure there's a good contrast between it and the color of the fruit.

This next design I created was a blast to work on and definitely moves toward the non-traditional when it comes to canning labels.

So far I have created similar labels for strawberry and plum jams. I'll create a breakdancing fruit cartoon for whatever kind of jam you've made. 

This "That's My Jam" theme really only works with jam. Jellies, sauces, pickled items won't really work with this design. But I can always create something different with the same font and overall look, like I did for our "Twerkin' Vanilla Peach Buttah." If you'd like to do a custom label like this, just shoot me a message.

Lastly, this is the label design that I created last year. It's printing on what looks like faintly stripped kraft paper with a custom little fruit or vegetable cartoon.

These can be customized for pretty much anything that goes into jars. I can add a greeting to the bottom or not, totally up to you.

I can set these up to be printed on Avery labels, 22807 for standard sized jars or 22830 for wide mouth jars. If you'd prefer to not go with Avery labels, I can squeeze as many on a page as I can and you can print them onto full-sheet sticker paper and the use a circle punch. It's pretty easy.

Links for each label:
That's my Jam
Script & Watercolor
Kraft Paper Cartoons

As always, if you're interested in creating a custom label with fonts, color, verbiage, or anything that's different than these, don't hesitate to send me a message or email. Thanks!

*This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item through these links, I get a few cents and you're helping keep my website running. I appreciate it!

First Day of School Signs

When I saw the growing popularity of sharing photos for a child's first day of school on social media and the fun and creative signs that parents often made, I jumped on that train to make one for my son when he started preschool. It's been a few years, but I finally got them added to my Etsy shop! 

Here are the ones I made for his first day of preschool and kindergarten:

This year I created a second design using different fonts:

Both styles are available in my Etsy shop. Just include the details such as your child's name, age, grade level, and what they'd like to be when they grow up along with what colors you'd like me to use in the comments section at checkout. I'll send you a print-ready PDF or JPG file that you can print yourself at 8.5x11 or A4. 

Link to Style 1  -  Link to Style 2

If you'd like to skip the Etsy route, you're welcome to send me an email to get one of these ordered as well: alextebowdesigns@gmail.com

Lauren's Birth Announcement

Lauren's mommy wanted to combine her birth announcement with their moving announcement and the timing on when they were getting these mailed meant we could also make this their family holiday card. Convenient!

Here's what we came up with (names and info have been changed to protect privacy).

Twin Castle Cellars Wine Label

I created this wine label for a very small vintner in the Livermore Valley in California. She wanted to use an illustration of a pair of castles that are close to where she grew up in the label. She grew up near Manderschied, Germany and used to play in these castles when she was a little girl.

Here's what I came up with: 

I created the image using watercolor along with pen and ink. Then I scanned the illustration and added the text in Photoshop. 

I really love how it turned out, and when it's printed on a textured, adhesive paper, it looks like an original watercolor. 

Sanford Cellars Wine Labels

My Uncle Mark makes wine as a hobby. But not as a let's-make-a-bottle-of-wine-and-see kind of hobby, more like let's-buy-one-ton-of-grapes-and-make-twenty-gallons-of-zinfandel kind of hobby. He's entered his wine into state and county fairs and likes to give it as holiday gifts too. And as a family member, I'm always happy to help with crushing or bottling when I'm in town if the timing is right. It's fascinating to learn about the process, even down to the chemistry. 

And his Zindandel and Viognier are my favorites.

This was the first label I created when he first got started. I did the grapes and leaves in watercolor and then added the text in Photoshop.

I created this label a couple of years later using a photo that a friend took of my uncle while he was harvesting grapes.

There's actually a second version of this label where the grapes are green and his hat is red, thanks to the magic of Adobe Photoshop. That label is used when he's bottling white wine.

I think it's time for a new one... any ideas?