I need some advice about labelling things for sale. I create & sell
beadwork & chain mail kits & I label them by using a database program
& printing out sheets of labels. This works well when I have lots to
be labelled, but not so well when there are just a few because I end
up with sheets with many blank labels in the middle. (I know how to
use them up, but it takes a lot of fiddling & effort.)
I also sell some beading/chain mail supplies at shows (think thread,
needles etc.), plus bags of jump rings, books, tools, lots of
clasps. Well, you get the picture. Some, like clasps, need tiny
labels; others can handle bigger ones. The small ones I have to
handwrite!! What a pain, and not professional.
So, to make a long story shorter, I want to know what you’d
recommend for labelling. And maybe I need to get one labeller for
large labels, and a different machine for the tiny ones. Are there
any issues re the kinds of labels? (size, colour (white, gold &
black),plastic coating…) that I need to know. Can I connect it to
my computer (Mac) & use existing
I’ve been looking on the internet (Dymo, Brother) but don’t know
where to start.
A dymo or a Brother one label at a time printer would work for you. I
know the Brother is mac compatible, not sure about the dymo.
For tiny labels, slide labels from Avery come in 8.5 x 11 sheets.
Even smaller ones come in smaller sizes, that supposedly fit in
regular printers, though I bet my printer wouldn’t like them.
I have a one at a time label printer and it’s awesome! Everyone
should have one.
Hi Marilyn, I have had a brother p-touch labeler for years. I label
at shows. It has four fonts and 5 sizes I think. It will take tapes
3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4 up to an inch. It is a great tool.
I have a Brother P-Touch. Got it for about $80 at Staples a couple
years ago, I guess. Wonderful investment! I think I’ve seen them for
less since then. The one I have uses label tape up to 1/2" wide, and
you can put up to four rows of text on it, depending on the font
size. It’s small then, but it’s legible. You can store labels so you
easily print them regularly, and I have the first saved one as my
price label- two rows, item number & then price - and after I pull
up that saved one (just a couple key strokes), I just update the info
to my current piece. The formatting is saved in that, though, so I
don’t have to think about it. I did discover that the slightly
skinnier tape, 3/8", I guess, fits perfectly on the little string
tags, so I just print it out (if you’re doing a bunch, you don’t have
to have it cut them off each time, just print, print, print, etc,
until you’re done, then cut them off as needed), cut it right before
& right after the text, and it fits on the tag without any trimming.
If you’re putting labels on something else that’s not so small, then
it’s even easier! You can get different colors, too - regular black
on white, red on white, black on yellow, etc, and perhaps even one
with a clear tape. In addition to using them for my jewelry tags
(yes, it looks much more professional then back when I hand-wrote,
however neatly, directly on those string tags), I use them to price
other things, just sticking them right on the item. Oh, and then
there’s all the use it gets labeling things in my studio, too!