Originally I purchased a spice jar "spindle" at a garage sale with the idea of using it in my art room. The spindle doesn't take up much space (and I need lots in my art space) and the bottles are very handy for storing little stuff like seed beads, pins, elastic bands, x-acto knife blades, eyeballs (yes, you read that right...made from clay) and other small things that you use a lot. I already have one and thought a second one would be handy...after all there are 16 bottles to have fun filling up!! And then...
I got a new RED KitchenAid mixer... the super duper one that you can make all sorts of wonderful things with especially bread!!
I love baking bread and as hubby says: "You are probably the only person I will ever know who could burn out a KitchenAid making bread and goodies!" That's exactly what I did recently to the one I have had for 10 years. Oh it still works but only at beating speeds... okay for whipped cream...not good for bread kneading.
I decided that perhaps it might be an idea to paint this spindle the same colour as my new machine, put some cute labels on the end and free up some space in the cupboard. Being an avid cook, I have more herbs and spices than you could possibly imagine... a whole cupboard full of them!! And yes, in case you are wondering, I use them all.
Thanks to my friend Geraldine, I was able to borrow her 1-1/2" round punch (just the perfect size for the tops of the bottles) to get the job done. A few minutes on the web produced a plethora of free labels for personalizing and printing.
Interested in doing this kind of project? Here's what you need:
Avery full Label Sheets #5165,5265™, 5975™, 6465™, 8165™, 8465™ (anyone of these will work)
Clear contact paper
A 1-1/2" round punch
World Label has free templates for different types of labels, many of which you can personalize on your computer and then print off. The chalkboard ones can be found here.
Once I completed filling out the template, I reduced the size of the graphic in my graphics program to make the labels smaller. You may need to fiddle with this a little bit to get the labels down to 1-1/2" in order to fit on the tops of the bottles.
You can find all sorts of labels there for labeling jars in your pantry. I save the mason jars from store bought sauces and then fill them up with nuts, dried fruit, rice, quinoa, beans, etc.. and slap a label on the front. Using clear contact paper on the front of the label means that you can (carefully) clean the bottle when you refill it. As hubby found out recently... don't let it soak in the washing up water while you check the latest news on your laptop...your label will be ....uhh... toast!!
Have fun with this project. Your cupboards will definitely pass the "mother in law" test once all your spice jars are done!
Till next time,
Sharon