New Life for Tin Art - Jar Labels

[drezz01]

I've been extremely busy lately but have been working on a little arts&crafts project when I have the time. I was inspired by another post to use the labels from my horde of empty tins to decorate and label my jarred tobacco. Not only is it easier to hunt down that particular blend but now some of my favorite tin art is on display.

I took a lighter to the bottom of the tin lids to melt the adhesive and slowly peeled the label back. Some labels were easier than others to liberate; I had to navigate around some small tears but was lucky not to ruin any of them past repair. I modge-podge'd them on to a manila folder for some support and then traced them with a mason jar lid and cut them out with an xacto knife.
Unfortunately this only represents ~1/2 of my cellar. The labels around the cardboard-style tins are too narrow to fit very nicely and bulk blends have no label to speak of. I may design some of my own in the future - if I ever find the time...

 

[beerandbaccy]

Looks great ! a real labour of love!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Nice work! Hope you don't catch much flak from Dunhill!

 

[iamn8]

Very cool idea!!! Well done!

 

[stickframer]

Looks really good man. Your cellar is coming along much better than mine lol.

 

[derfatdutchman]

Great idea!

 

[fmgee]

Wow, looks really good. I have been holding on to my empty tins for something. I used a few lids on my pipe stand (pics here) but have wondered what I would do with the others.

 

[jkrug]

That looks really good drezz. Must have taken a fair bit of time to do all that...you are a patient man I see. ::

 

[drezz01]

It did take a bit of time but I broke it up over several evenings across a couple weeks: two nights learning to clench a pipe while holding a lighter to the bottom of tin lids, an evening of gluing the labels as flat as possible to their backing, and then two or three nights of cutting them out -- circles are hard.

 

[okiescout]

Great idea!

 

[cortezattic]

Nice work. Thanks for taking the time to photograph them and post the picture. :clap:

 

[plugugly]

Now that gives the tin art the respect it deserves!
Plugugly

 

[brudnod]

As long as placing the labels in the screw top does not compromise the seal, that is a really cool idea!

 

[drezz01]

As long as placing the labels in the screw top does not compromise the seal, that is a really cool idea!

I had almost abandoned this project when that thought crossed my mind -- but then I remembered that a lot of preserves I have seen have a checkered piece of fabric pinched under the screw collar and above the metal lid. In this case, the label goes on top of the metal lid and under the screw collar. There would be a little extra 'give' before fully compressing the rubber gasket so I have just been tightening them a little extra.
I opened a jar of Pembroke that I had decanted straight in to a jar with a label on it. It had been left for ~2 weeks and popped when I pried the metal lid off! Must have been going through some sort of ageing process in that short time after being liberated from the confines of its original tin.
But I'll let you all know if I start seeing any negative impacts.

 

[drezz01]

But I'll let you all know if I start seeing any negative impacts.

I decided to revive this old thread instead of starting a new one because I learned that using modge podge wasn't a great idea. Some of the lids had become seized shut and needed to be pried off the modge podge'd labels. Additionally, I have been suffering from a bit of TAD and my collection has been growing. My old process was just too tedious to repeat ad hoc so I ended up with a fairly sad looking cellar. Something needed to be done.
A couple of weeks ago I came across Muttnchop Piper on youtube. Two of his videos caught my eye.
The first featured a 'soda-crate' from Michael's craft store which perfectly fits 8oz canning jars. Now, for those of you new to the hobby, an 8oz jar fits a 50g or 2oz tin of tobacco perfectly. I would, however, suggest the wide-mouthed jars. Standard jars, I find, are too narrow to fill a pipe over and require decanting some tobacco in to a small bowl or other container. But that's a different discussion altogether and the wide-mouthed jars will not work with these crates.

Youtube Link

Michael's Link
The second video which caught my eye exhibited a method for creating jar labels by photographing tin art and printing on a sheet of label paper.
I ended up using Avery 2.5" round labels instead of cutting out each label individually as shown in Muttnchop Piper's video. Avery provides templates for all of their products so I was able to make an InDesign file that I could easily plop tin art in to. I relied mostly on images from the internet as most of my tins were recycled long ago. I'm happy to share the files (both InDesign and Photoshop files of the tin art), PM me if you're interested in doing something similar.
The last piece of the puzzle was how to apply the labels to the lids. The concave lids did not play well with the flat labels so I ended up applying each label to a 2.5" circle of bristle board. I grabbed a 2.5" punch, again from Michael's, which made short work of the circles.
If you're interested in going down this road it's important to note that Michael's almost always have a '40% off 1 regular priced item' coupon. My SO and I bought a soda crate each (limit 1 coupon per customer :wink and I returned another day for the punch.
The 2.5" sized labels give you the perfect amount of wiggle room to centre the design in the lid. Despite rigorously setting up my InDesign file - it printed a little off-centre. Note: There is a write and wrong way to insert the label sheets in to your printer.
The sharp-eyed among you may notice I took some liberties with some of the tin art.

Higher resolution of the image below

 

[hextor]

that is very cool, I need to try this method, nice collection you have there.

 

[ashdigger]

That's a cool idea......I wonder if I could make beer coasters out of them.

 

[drezz01]

I would suggest the first method for that - I've seen several hobbyists use modge podge to make coasters out of old maps and such. Just need a stiffer backing and you'd be good to go!

 

[fitzy]

That's awesome. You've got a lot more patience than I do. lol

 

[bryguysc]

Now you need to upload your digital files so we all can steal use your idea!