BYOB With Label

Our friends, who own a small graphic design firm, have started what I hope will be a tradition for years to come. "Unwined," they call their casual and fun get-together. Guests must bring a bottle of wine sporting a label they designed. At the end of the evening, each guest walks away with someone else's label--and the bottle of wine it's attached to, of course.

Here's the inspiration for my label:

Yep. That's me with my grandpa. A shovel-totin', mud-caked little farm girl. For you city folks who may be unfamiliar with such a scene, we'd just finished the messy job of  leveling irrigation pipe--an irrigation method that preceded the current center-pivot systems.

"Helping" Grandpa in the fields and doing chores around the farm with Grandma comprise some of my most precious memories. As an adult, I'm certain my love for the outdoors and getting my hands dirty in the garden stems, in large part, from those warm summer days spent with my wonderful and hard-working grandparents.

Over the years, friends have referred to me as earthy, down to earth and an earth mother (among other things). So, I took a cue from those references and named my label "Earth Angel."

If you've never used Picnik, you gotta give it a try. This user-friendly site made creation of my label--and my husband's--an absolute snap. It has everything needed: special effects and editing tools, a wide variety of fonts to choose from and a good menu of framing options. It also offers many features I didn't need for this project.

My husband chose a fun vintage image of two guys in Victorian-era prison uniforms from The Graphics Fairy. A master punster, he titled his label "Zinful," as his bottle of wine was a zinfandel.

For a little panache, I created special hang tags for each bottle. Each featured a toast taken from a sweet little 1909 book I found at an estate sale.

Here are the final products:

It could probably go without saying that my husband chose the toast to mediocrity with its silly-looking donkey for his hang tag. Me--I chose one a little more down to earth.

Linking to:

Potpourri Party at 2805

Feathered Nest Friday

Designer Garden VIP Party

Farmhouse Friday

Sister Sunday Link Party

Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop

Sunday Showcase--Under the Table and Dreaming

Brag Monday

Rook No. 17

Tuesday's Treasures

It's a Party

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday at {Primp}

Farm Friend Friday

Freshmen Friday