Cool Canning labels & BBQ sauce

A couple of years ago, we found a recipe for homemade BBQ sauce.  We made it one weekend, loved it, and since then, I've made all our BBQ sauce.  Sometimes, I even add finely chopped jalepenos to spice it up.  (Kev's favorite.)  We have a very good friend who always makes his sauce every time he grills or barbecues.  While I love his sauce, it's never the same twice, and I like the convenience of having a jar of it in the pantry when I need it.  

So, one day last week, I canned up a batch of sauce.  I made 6 pints and a "short" pint which I put in one of my Weck jars.  (It's the tall juice jar in the back.)

  

Recently, while I was browsing on the web, I found some shrink-wrap canning labels.  From Modern Harvest, they make 4 designs and I couldn't decide which one I liked the most.  Fortunately they have a "sampler" pack.

Now that I didn't have to try to pick out a design, I placed an order for labels for pint jars, quart jars and 1/2 pint jars (or jelly jars.)  Very reasonably priced.  (Each package of 36 labels is $6.99.)

I liked the premise that these were shrink wrap labels, I liked the large writing area and I liked the back side which lets you mark the month and year you canned the item.  Since I hate writing on lids, and hate the little Ball labels that were never big enough, didn't fit nicely on the jars, and were a pain to scrub off empty jars, this seemed to be a perfect answer for me.

They're incredibly easy to use, just write on the label with a Sharpie pen, slide the label up on the jar (they go clear around the jar...as in shrink wrap!)  Then dip the jars in hot water for a couple of seconds.  I had my pot boiling, and I held them in for a few seconds.  I probably kept them in the water longer than I needed to, but I wanted to be sure they shrank up!  Then, I just set them on the towel to dry.  I was really pleased to see the pint labels also worked on my Weck jar, because of their shape, labels are a challenge, but no more!  I'm going to get out my Weck jars of honey and maple syrup and label them too!  And when my jars are empty, I can simply cut the labels off with a pair of scissors.

I'm actually now looking forward to canning season so I can play with my labels!  I'm also eyeballing that multi-pack of Sharpie pens so I can get really creative and colorful with my labels.