The Art of Crafting Labels for Party Favors

On the September edition of the Canadian magazine Chocolat, I read a neat article on how to label and add panache to ordinary storage containers. The idea is to get inspired by scrapbooking to produce adorable labels.

Nicely packaged hostess gifts and party favors seem more special. Labels add value to the simplest things so you do not need to spend a lot of money on the container.

How to make your own labels?

Beside printing labels, letter and number stickers come handy when put on metallic buckets and glassware jars. You can mix and match fonts and colors for a whimsical effect. For a richer look, use metallic letters.

Sticker labels are widely available at the office supply store in different sizes and shapes. Import cropped pictures or shapes to create your own design.

If you use commercial brand sticker sheets, you can use the label tools of MS-Word to format your sheet of labels. The tool displays the borderers of each label. Print it first on a plain sheet of paper to see if your patterns sit at the right place on every label. Otherwise, you can find templates on the Web like the ones published by Chocolat.

You may prefer the look of a textured paper label. Since they are not available as a self adhesive paper, finding the right glue for the job is critical. Ask the staff at a scrapbook department of an art and craft store for advice. But remember that craft is a trial and error process, so stock a few extra for experimenting. You can always use the extra for another project.

Shaped labels

You can cut out the silhouette of animal, thing or person on a plastic placemat from the Dollar store or get a placemat on sale. If you use a placemat, you will need to handwrite your text with a permanent ink pen. I find that pens from Sharpie stick well on all surfaces. Usually, Velcro circles are the best way to hold cut silhouette labels in place.

Gluing textiles and paper on boxes

I really like how the team of Chocolat had recycled in style the shoe boxes. Reuse this idea to wrap a present or to make a container for a centerpiece. I did it last Christmas with gorgeous hat boxes. It is unexpected. But really you can use this technique on any carton size.

They are more ideas on the print magazine but the instructions to three techniques with templates are published on the Chocolat magazine Web site.

If you are not ready to make your own, the nice Cookie labels designed by Jordan, the girl blogger behind Oh Happy Days are available for $5 on Etsy. I spotlighted her lovely cookie jars two weeks ago. Each package contains five self adhesive brown cookie labels.

Have fun and start to custom made your labels.

Sourcing:
Techniques and templates: Label It on Chocolat magazine
Learn more: Etsy shop published on Oh Happy Days blog
Buy online: jordanferney’s Etsy shop