Now that you’ve made jars upon jars of tasty jam, you may want to dress some up to give away to friends and family as gifts, and you’ll definitely want to label them so you’ll know whether you’re opening a jar of strawberry jam or raspberry jam.
Below is a quick how to for making fabric jam jar toppers, and I also have printable rectangular tags and circular labels for 9 different types of jam. The circle labels are 2 inches in diameter and were made to fit half pint jars, but they’ll work on any jar lid 2 inches or larger, and they can also be used as labels for the sides of the jam jars.
I printed my tags onto kraft cardstock for a rustic look, but you can print them onto white cardstock for a similar look, or you can break out the colored pencils and crayons and color them in however you’d like. This would be a great activity for the kids to do while you’re making the jam.
What you’ll need for the fabric jar toppers:
- a 6 inch square of fabric (for a half pint jar)
- embroidery thread or thin ribbon
- a rubber band (or a new hair elastic)
- scissors
- printed jam labels
- a small hole punch
Fold your fabric square into half, and then fold it into half again. Cut along the open edge in an arched shape, creating the outline of a quarter circle (above top). This doesn’t need to be exact, as you can trim the fabric later.
Roughly center the fabric over the top of the jar, and place a rubber band (or a new hair elastic if you don’t have a rubber band) over the fabric until it is snugly in place over the jar lid (bottom left). You may have to wrap the rubber band around the lid more than once in order to fit the fabric snugly. If needed, adjust the fabric in order to get even distribution around the jar lid.
Wrap embroidery thread or thin ribbon around the jar lid a few times, pulling firmly to make sure that the thread or ribbon will hold the fabric in place. Tie the thread or ribbon into a knot (bottom left). Remove the rubber band or hair elastic.
Note: If you’re going to be shipping your jam or transporting it in such a way that it will be jostled around, you should use a rubber band to fit the fabric to the lid and just leave the rubber band in place to be covered by the thread or ribbon. Otherwise, there’s a chance that the fabric topper will pop off in transit.
Using a small circular hole punch, punch holes at the top of your jam labels. Thread the ribbon or thread through the hole and tie a knot or bow to finish. Trim the ends of the thread or ribbon, and trim the fabric if needed. Ta-da, you’ve got a prettied up jam jar!
UPDATE: Blackberry Jam labels added 8/29, Damson Jam labels added 9/26
Here are the rectangular tags / labels that you can download for different types of jam:
The PDFs contain 15 tags of the same design per page (download Adobe Reader here):
Strawberry Jam
Peach Jam
Cherry Jam
Plum Jam
Blueberry Jam
Raspberry Jam
Mixed Berry Jam
Orange Marmalade
Blackberry Jam
Damson
2 inch circle label PDFs contain 12 labels of the same design per page:
Strawberry Jam
Peach Jam
Cherry Jam
Plum Jam
Blueberry Jam
Raspberry Jam
Mixed Berry Jam
Orange Marmalade
Blackberry Jam
Damson
Have fun jamming!
Posted in Craft, Downloads, Tutorials | 49 Comments »
How freakin’ cute are these? You are so talented lady! xoxo
posted: August 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pmAww, thanks, E! They were a lot of fun to make.
posted: August 24th, 2009 at 4:48 pmArgh! These are so, so, SO cute! I love them! Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll be linking to this.
posted: August 24th, 2009 at 6:06 pmThese labels are adorable. Thanks for sharing!
posted: August 24th, 2009 at 7:06 pmFun! Cooking + Crafts. Was there ever a better combo?
posted: August 24th, 2009 at 7:45 pmOh I LOVE this! Thank you so much. I am about to can 265lbs of peaches this week and I am ready to explode with ideas on how to use them all. Wonderful post.
Val
posted: August 25th, 2009 at 12:18 amso sweet! pun intended. Thanks I have made cherry jam before it was much easier than I thought it would be and soooooo good!
posted: August 25th, 2009 at 1:48 amHi these lables are so lovely I wondered if you had one for blackberry jam as this year I have an abundance of them and wanted to try making jam and these lables would be the finishing touch
posted: August 25th, 2009 at 11:39 amWhat a lovely idea!
posted: August 26th, 2009 at 9:25 amthanks for the jam ideas! can’t wait to try it out!
Thanks, everyone! So glad that you’re enjoying the recipe and labels.
Rachel – Thanks so much for the link!
Meghan – cooking and crafts do make a perfect pair!
Rachel – I’ll have a blackberry one up by sometime this weekend. How could I forget blackberry?!
posted: August 27th, 2009 at 7:27 pmJust stumbled in – I love, love, love this blog. Should have landed here this Spring – would have had so many things to do with my son.
I have a quick question and I’ll take my answer off the air – when you’re designing tags, etc. are you using Illustrator and some kind of Wacom tablet? I have Ill CS only (can’t afford to upgrade) and just ordered a tablet cuz my arm’s gonna fall off if I try to trace any more sketches with my mouse. No trace option in my Ill version.
That’s all – just wanted some inside scoop if poss. Posted about the site on my Twitter yesterday (@foundtoday) and will post on my blog as soon as possible. Thanks!!
posted: August 29th, 2009 at 10:51 amThanks very much for the Blackberry jam label its fab and just makes my jam jars look pretty x
posted: August 31st, 2009 at 6:38 amThanks, Chrissy! Just emailed you re: Illustrator.
Glad to hear it, Rachel!
posted: September 1st, 2009 at 12:19 pmThanks! With summer coming up here I might actually be inspired to give a few jars away with beautiful labels! Hope the jam lives up to them
posted: September 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 amBellissime ho fatto un post nel mio blog.
posted: September 3rd, 2009 at 4:10 amsaluti
Monica
[...] made jam and are giving some away as gifts or just want to dress up your own jars, check out this free download for some stylish labels you can print [...]
posted: September 3rd, 2009 at 6:18 amThese are fantastic!!! In England, we call Orange Jam ‘Orange Marmalade’. Any chance of a Marmalade label? It’s SUCH a great word, isn’t it?
xx
posted: September 3rd, 2009 at 9:47 amAnna – There’s an Orange Marmalade label in the lineup (next to last in the link list above), so download away!
And marmalade is a great word!
posted: September 3rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm[...] stampabili per le conserve di marmellata Posted on 5 Settembre 2009 by sanztosi Sul sito Domestifluff potete stampare le etichette per le conserve di [...]
posted: September 4th, 2009 at 8:14 pm[...] know I love to make jam, and these printable jam labels are the perfect compliment. – Labels and Jar Toppers by Domestic [...]
posted: September 8th, 2009 at 10:24 amLovely labels but i was looking for a honey one which would be an idea as im a beekeeper. This has given me the inspiration i need now though. Thanks x
posted: September 11th, 2009 at 3:30 amTo add a different “twist” to these adorable labels and jar tags…print them off on ‘plain WHITE label/cardboard stock paper’ using a orange marker or other matching colour to that of the jar contents! A fun play on colour matching! I need to find a way to incorporate my name in type to that of the tag…any suggestions?
posted: September 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am[...] Jam tags – yummy yummy >.< [...]
posted: September 19th, 2009 at 11:56 amThese are beautiful! A very cheeky request – I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a ‘damson jam’ one, is there? We’ve had a glut of damsons this year so I have lots of jam to give to people, but there’s no way I could design a label as lovely as these myself!
posted: September 21st, 2009 at 11:55 amHi, I wondered if you had cute designs for chutneys and pickles at all? Becs
posted: September 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 amBrooke – I used a font called TrashHand (http://www.dafont.com/trash-hand.font) for the jam names. It’s free to download, and if you have a graphics program like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop you should be able to open the PDF there and make a new layer where you can customize the labels with your name.
Minnie – Since a damson is basically a plum (right?) I can use the plum illustration and create a damson label. Just give me a few days to post the files!
Becie – I don’t have any labels for chutneys or pickles, as I haven’t tried to make anything like this, but in the future if I give it a try I may post some labels.
posted: September 22nd, 2009 at 7:38 pmThank you for the labels! My gift-giving just became easier!
posted: September 25th, 2009 at 11:31 am[...] is another way to dress up those Jam jars. Domestifluff have put together a ‘How To’ including fabulous tags that are free to [...]
posted: September 25th, 2009 at 5:21 pmThese are too cute! strawberry jam is my favorite…thanks for the free download!
Amber
posted: September 25th, 2009 at 6:15 pm~Cloud9 Design
Thanks for these, they are so cute! Should make my jam attempts look a bit less amateur
posted: September 29th, 2009 at 6:44 pmGreat post, it makes the jar look more professional while still looking homemade, we produce small quatities of homemade jam and will be trying this method
posted: September 30th, 2009 at 9:56 amI love this post so much I had to include it in my canning jars post: http://monami.squarespace.com/mon-ami-journal/2009/10/2/inspiration-canning-jars.html
thanks for sharing!
posted: October 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm[...] Kristen of Domestifluff (using the TrashHand font, also [...]
posted: October 7th, 2009 at 4:07 pmThanks for creating these tags and toppers. They are so adorable!
posted: October 8th, 2009 at 11:40 amLovely labels, thanks for sharing. I’ve added a link from my blog.
posted: October 9th, 2009 at 7:10 amWe just featured your Adorable labels in our latest blog entry… We hope you enjoy it!!
http://luluandbug.blogspot.com/2009/10/greetings.html
posted: October 21st, 2009 at 12:34 amThank you! That’s fantastic.
posted: October 24th, 2009 at 3:05 amHello!!!
posted: October 26th, 2009 at 4:53 pmWhat a wonderfull blog!!!…I love homemade jams and I use to give them to my friends as a present. What a nice lavels!!!. Thank you!!
All the best from Argentina.
Thanks for this project! It’s lovely. Best wishes from Spain.
posted: November 9th, 2009 at 10:00 amI just found your lovely corner in the blogland. So happy I did! I absolutely love this project! Have a happy week!
posted: November 18th, 2009 at 8:40 amHi. These are great, and can’t wait to give out jars and jars of jam at xmas.thank you. I was wondering where you got those jars from though, I can’t seem to find anything but plain ones around. I really like the details in the one uyou have in the picture.
posted: November 18th, 2009 at 6:39 pmHi, just wanted to say I’ve just stumbled across ur blog while looking for labels. These are fantastic and just what I’m looking for, hope you don’t mind if I “steal” them??
BUT….LOL….. any chance you can do a Lemon Curd one as I’ve found a new passion for making that recently!
posted: November 19th, 2009 at 7:08 amThanks again!
Sorry, also meant to ask, how can I add my name and date to the labels on the pc? I don’t want to hand-write them cos my handwriting looks like a spider’s dipped his legs in ink and run across the page! LOL
posted: November 19th, 2009 at 7:54 am[...] out. You can even see some decorating suggestions for the bottles at the site called Domestifluff here. 45.136908 -76.142084 Published [...]
posted: November 27th, 2009 at 9:54 amKristy,
I applaud you for such amazing crafts. Thank you for sharing. I thought this year for Christmas I’m going to give home made gift as dollars are very tight and I search everywhere to find labels. Thank God I found you. My jams and jellies will look so professional. Question though, how do I get my own name on the lable as it is a PDF?? Please advise. Thank you kindly.
Have a Wonderful Christmas and all the Best for the New Year!
posted: December 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pmHi…how about a grape jelly label!? I think your design is adorable! Got the blackberry one…thanks!
posted: December 11th, 2009 at 10:01 amThanks so much for the free download! I was wondering what font you used to fill in your labels. Just want it all to match! Thanks again!
posted: December 20th, 2009 at 1:29 amthank-you for these lovely labels. i am new to jam making and was surprised at the cost of labels you have saved me a small fortune i hope you didnt mind me pinching them
posted: January 17th, 2010 at 3:24 amThank you sooo much for all your downloads. You are very talented and have such an amazing website. It’s incredibly generous of you. I am saving them for the summer. Thanks!
posted: February 3rd, 2010 at 8:02 am