Candy wrappers using Avery labels

Last August we had a surprise party for our son who had just bought his first home. The theme was The Money Pit. I wrote about the party here and here.

This past weekend I told my future daughter-in-law about making labels for the candies with the idea that she might like them for her wedding next fall. The candies last August were Nestle Treasures and Hershey Nuggets. Today I made samples for Kim using Nuggets and Hershey miniatures.
I have no idea yet if this idea will be used, but I thought I would share with you how I did this using Microsoft Word and Avery labels.

Avery address label # 8160 is the perfect size to wrap around these miniature candies.

Find a graphic or a photo that you would like to use. If using a photo, you will probably need to crop it to the most important part (a face for example) since details may be lost when it shrinks to fit on the label. I used this graphic.

As shown, this graphic would have printed wrapping around the candy top to bottom instead of reading side to side. I rotated the graphic and saved it again.

Open Word, then choose Tools, then Letters and Mailings, then Envelopes and Labels, and finally, Labels. Click Options to get a list of Avery labels and select #8160. Click on New Document and you will see a page of blank labels. A double line will show between the columns of labels which come 30 per page, three columns of ten.

I should stop a moment and say that I am using Microsoft Office Word 2003. Other versions may vary slightly in the path you take to get to labels, but I think this is pretty standard.

You will need to rotate your text so that it runs the same direction as your picture. To do this, right click within a label area and choose Text Direction. Select the option you would like and type your greeting. I have hundreds of fonts and can't tell you if the script that I used came with Microsoft Word or another source. Word does offer many fonts and often bolding the font or italicizing will give you a look you will like.

Insert your graphic by clicking Insert, then Picture, then From File and entering the graphic you have saved.

You may need to make your font or picture smaller. Highlight your text and choose Format, then Font, or use the drop down box for font size on your Word toolbar. To alter the picture, left click in it and a box will appear around the graphic. Click on a corner and scale the picture up or down in size, keeping it within the label area.

The two candies in the left column are my least favorite. The graphic looked good until I put it on the candy. The words wind up on the sides. The two in the right column came next. Better, I think, but my favorite is in the middle with the couples names and tentative wedding date above the graphic that has a different font as part of the graphic.

If something isn't clear from my instructions, don't hesitate to post a question to my blog and I will help if I can.

Don't forget to sample a chocolate or two while you wrap the labels around them. You wouldn't want to serve bad chocolate, would you?

Oh wait....there is no such thing as bad chocolate, is there?!!