Preferred Wine Cellars
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How to Make Your Own Wine Labels
The primary function of wine labels is to give information about the contents of the bottle. What type of wine is in there? What is the alcohol content? In which year was the wine produced?
Another reason to use wine labels is to make the bottles stand out. If you are looking for a specific wine, speed-reading the labels can help you to select the right wine in no time. If you are making your own wine, you can also make your own labels. This is fun and you can be really creative. If you make some good ones people will stop asking you whether you made your wine in the bathtub and start asking if you have your own winery (with a bit of luck!)
Making Wine Labels with a Computer
Design your wine labels on the computer using your favorite design program. If you already have Photoshop, use that. If you prefer PowerPoint, Avery label designer or another program, use that instead. Design programs range from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars and you can also download free ones.
You will need to divide a page into six boxes because one sixth of a paper makes a good-sized wine label. Make sure each box is the same size. Add an image to one box and resize or rotate it if necessary. You can use a photo (for this you will need a digital camera and scanner) or some clip art. Think of a good name for your homemade wine and add that, as well as the year when it was bottled.
If you are making the wine as a gift for friends, you can personalize the labels, putting a photo of each friend, as well as his or her name, on the corresponding label. You can really have a lot of fun with this. If you are giving a gift to a family, what about putting a photo of your kids on the label. If you are presenting the wine at a birthday party, you can put a humorous message on the wine labels. The sky is the limit. Just use your imagination and ask the kids for help with the computer if you get stuck on the technical stuff.
As well as this, you can also state the varietals, the winemaker, the source of the grapes and anything else you want. Copy everything from that box into the five others, so you get six identical wine labels on one page. Print the labels and use a straight-edged paper cutter to cut them out. A glue stick is the best option for affixing your labels to the wine bottles because the glue is water-soluble meaning you can remove the labels at a later date.
How to Stop the Ink from Running
The best way to stop inkjet colors from bleeding or running is to let the ink dry well and then spray on a waterproof coating. Good coatings include polyurethane, clear acrylic sealers, satin finish top coat spray, Krylon Kamar varnish, Delta Spray Varnish or Blair Color Gloss Plastic Coat. You can get these for less than $8 a can from your local arts and crafts store and they will keep your wine labels looking perfect for a long time.
