Tutorial on label making?

[BernardSmith]

Is there a good tutorial on label making?
Is there good simple and inexpensive (free?) software for making labels? I have been playing with the Avery templates but I find them ridiculously cumbersome to use. Do people in these forums create their own artwork or is quality artwork available for labels through shareware and the like?

 

[olusteebus]

I find avery difficult to work with also. While it is not the best, I use microsoft Paint. I get images from Google, Sometimes I take the photos to Pic monkey. Sometimes I have a helluva time getting them to avery.

The biggest problem I have with avery is trying to save the label as a jpeg file so I can take it to office max to have them print on a laser printer. There is a way but I keep forgetting how to do it.

 

[cindy]

easy use picmonkey no software needed its free and you can upload
any kind of pics whether your own or google pics off the web,copy then load
them onto picmonkey alter them to your hearts content and print them out.
super simple! here's some labels I made a few weeks ago and put them on the
bottles today

this is one I'll be using soon

 

[cindy]

couple more all done free with picmonkey

 

[BernardSmith]

Thanks Cindy. I will certainly try out picmonkey. Those labels look fabulous!

 

[ShelleyDickison]

Cindy, your labels are always beautiful.

 

[olusteebus]

Cindy, what did you print them out on?

 

[FTC Wines]

Bernard, I agree a tutorial on making labels would be a great idea, some of us make great wine but are computer savvy challenged! I still hand write my labels. When I gave a bottle of wine to my son with a label on it from a kit he said "dad where did you BUY this wine, it's good" Roy

 

[cindy]

the printer is a Xerox phaser 8560

 

[olusteebus]

the printer is a Xerox phaser 8560

No, I'm sorry, what paper did you use?

 

[cindy]

just standard printer paper.

 

[olusteebus]

That Falling Leaves is beautiful.

 

[BernardSmith]

Cindy, Picmonkey is fabulous. No question. but can you create six images so that they print easily on Avery labels sized at 3 1/3 x 4?

 

[dessertmaker]

I spent 3 years working in a TV studio doing graphics and I still use free software to make most of my labels.

If you're looking for good photography to use on your label, thousands of professionally done royalty free images are available to download at

http://www.gettyimages.com.

Once you have found and downloaded one you like, this is an easy to use free photo editing software:

http://picasa.google.com/

And once you have finished it out and saved the file, it's easy to drop that image into an Avery template and simply print it out on an Avery label. Just remember, INK JET PRINTER INK BLEEDS OFF LABELS WHEN WET. (Lesson learned the hard way) Laser printer ink (actually called toner) does not.

More on Picasa: It has some of the most powerful and easy to use photo editing tools I've ever seen. Plus what I found ideal for making labels is that it has tons of professional (and very artsy) fonts and text effects.

To use some of the effects you have to make a google+ account but that's free so I don't mind.

If I'm making compilations I still use adobe paint shop pro to mix the pictures, but if all I'm doing is putting text to a picture I've already taken, Picasa every time!

 

[JoshDivino]

WOW! Cindy your labels are awesome, I will now forever use Pic Monkey, thanks for the post, really LOVE the labels.

 

[snowgirl812001]

Thanks for this thread!! I was clueless about the whole label issue lol. I have been playing around with PicMonkey now and have 2 ideas I'm working on. One for Prickly Pear and one for Mesquite. Would love to have your opinions on them, as I am very much a newbie here.

 

[joea132]

Thanks for this thread!! I was clueless about the whole label issue lol. I have been playing around with PicMonkey now and have 2 ideas I'm working on. One for Prickly Pear and one for Mesquite. Would love to have your opinions on them, as I am very much a newbie here.

Those are both fantastic

 

[Billy8998]

How do you stick them on? I've heard milk works??

 

[cindy]

glue stick easy on easy off

 

[snowgirl812001]

Those are both fantastic

Thanks! Thanks also to Cindy, you have beautiful labels and very helpful tips!