Something I've wanted to do for a long time, and finally did. Did I spend three days working on it nearly non-stop? Sure did. Will it necessarily take you that long? Probably not.
This is blog post by Love Pomegranate House is what I mostly followed.
This is blog post by Love Pomegranate House is what I mostly followed.
The most time-consuming part was sourcing the images and editing them. Partly this was because I wanted to be sure to get public domain images (so I could share them) and partly it was my lack of know-how about image-editing software and my inability to navigate a Mac.
I did my editing using Mac's "Preview"; though I have photoshop on this computer, I have no idea how to use it. If you know more about image manip than I do, editing photos will probably not be so arduous. Also, I sourced a bunch of images for you! Right here at this Google drive link you'll find links to all the images I used, as well as the edits I made.
Also in that Drive folder is a word document, with all the pictures nicely lined up for printing. Note that my containers are aprox. 2.44" square.
Also in that Drive folder is a word document, with all the pictures nicely lined up for printing. Note that my containers are aprox. 2.44" square.
Note that all the images in the 72-96 DPI folder will come out slightly blurry. I've so far been unable to find higher DPI images for those particular herbs. But stay tuned! If I manage to source some 300DPI public domain images of say, nutmeg, you'll be the first to know.
This site on Wikimedia commons is a great source for images. It's mainly what I used, so you'll find there more botanical illustrations like the ones on my tins. This botanical.com site is good for looking up spices and images.
I've had these containers on my fridge for several months now, and here are a few things I've learned.
1) The powdery spices tend to gum up the lids (think: powdered ginger, cumin, etc.). I've had to transfer the ginger back into a shaker.
2) If I were doing it over, I'd use tins with screw-on lids. My lids are sometimes hard to pull off without a small explosion of spice.
3) Good for pinching amounts and getting your measuring spoons in; bad for sprinkling over pots.
4) LAMINATE YO' LABELS. I tried hacking it with packaging tape, but it's just not cutting it. Without lamination, all those pretty labels I worked so hard on will get gross and ripped as you cook.
I'm still pleased with how they look and how they allow me to see at a glance what spices we have. However. they're not as functional as I was expecting, which is aggravating. I think with some of the above alterations, they'd be much more cooking-friendly.
xo,
Devo
1) The powdery spices tend to gum up the lids (think: powdered ginger, cumin, etc.). I've had to transfer the ginger back into a shaker.
2) If I were doing it over, I'd use tins with screw-on lids. My lids are sometimes hard to pull off without a small explosion of spice.
3) Good for pinching amounts and getting your measuring spoons in; bad for sprinkling over pots.
4) LAMINATE YO' LABELS. I tried hacking it with packaging tape, but it's just not cutting it. Without lamination, all those pretty labels I worked so hard on will get gross and ripped as you cook.
I'm still pleased with how they look and how they allow me to see at a glance what spices we have. However. they're not as functional as I was expecting, which is aggravating. I think with some of the above alterations, they'd be much more cooking-friendly.
xo,
Devo
[Awesome “spice must flow” joke] But seriously, this is awesome! [Lame “Spice Girls” joke]
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