Label your water - Part I

Here's another chance to impart my wedding guest "wisdom".


As a bridesmaid in a recent wedding, I took on the job of water bottle labels for the bachelorette weekend (gotta hydrate after days at the beach and nights on the town)!! 


I know this very much "in vogue" right now, so I figured it couldn't be that hard. I started with some googling.

Can anyone tell me what a water bottle lanyard is?

Though I expect to be wrong more often than right when judging the simplicity of DIY projects, this time I was correct. Now, a lot of the credit is owed to the site I used to purchase labels, which was OnlineLabels.com. This tutorial is going to focus mainly on using their tools and services, but I've also listed specifics that might help if you use a different site for purchasing.

To start, the process can be simplified by choosing the type of water bottle you'll be using and then measuring the label size. This will help narrow down the type of blank label you should use, giving you the option to put your personalized label over the current label or place it on a "naked" bottle.

Step 1: Measure Bottle

Tutorial example: Nestle PureLife water (1/2 liter) with label measurements of 1.25 x 8.25

Source: Google

I picked OnlineLabels.com for my template because of their number of template choices. Here, you have to select the template that meets your size and material requirements. The site has hundreds of options for size and you can choose materials from recycled white to waterproof silver.

Step 2: Choose Label Template

Tutorial example: OnlineLabels.com template OL435RX (1.375 x 8.1875), 100% recycled white

I made this choice since I didn't want to go super fancy on my first try...and, it's a little cheaper. If I were to list one problem with OnlineLabels.com, it's that you can't buy in small quantities, at least not for much of a discount. So, I now have 700 labels in my possession. Expect more personalized water bottle labels in my future (birthdays, Christmas, etc).

Step 3: Set up Template 

Tutorial example: Maestro Label Designer

With my purchase, I received a free 3 month trial of Maestro, which pulls up the template for your label and allows you to design in their system. However, you can also use one of the templates that fit your size labels and populate on your own. Here is an example of a blank template in Maestro, if you want pages of identical labels.

Yup, just a big giant box

In Part II, I will share the details of my design process, which was quick, simple, and easily repeatable (in Maestro, Word or PDF).

All photos are personal screenshots unless otherwise noted.