A Canning Party - Free Printables from Paper Crave
Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 6:56AMSummer is a busy time Chez Industrialist, and so I am so happy to have asked the lovely Kristen Magee of Paper Crave to do a guest post. Like me, she shares a love of cooking, design, and craft. I think her post is the perfect blend of all three. I hope you love it as much as I do. Take it away, Kristen!
;)
© 2010 Kristen Magee // Paper Crave
I have many wonderful memories of the yearly canning parties that my family used to have during the height of the summer harvest. Though I wasn't old enough at the time to actually take part in the jam making and pickling fun, I do remember having a great time picking berries from bushes that grew in the woods behind my godparents' house, which was where the parties were held. I honestly don't know how many of those berries actually made it back to the house, instead of going straight to my tummy!
;)
© 2010 Kristen Magee // Paper CraveThough I now live in the city, with nary a wild berry bush in sight, as I've gotten older I've had a growing interest in “putting food by” - making my own jams, jellies, sauces, and anything else that strikes my fancy. I've only been canning for a couple of years, but it's been such a rewarding thing for me to do, and I'm happy to see that many more people have become interested in canning in recent years. 
© 2010 Kristen Magee // Paper Crave So, why not take what can often be a solo activity and turn it into a party? Send out invites to friends and family, asking them to bring their garden bounty (or fruits and veggies from their CSA delivery or a local farm), and include several recipe cards so they can fill them out and share their favorite recipes for jams, pickles, sauces, and more. Be sure to have plenty of extra recipe cards on hand during the party for recipes created on the fly, and have plenty of labels and tags, too, so everyone can label what they made and share with the other guests. What better party favor than jars of tasty canned goods that can be enjoyed year 'round?
There are plenty of resources on the web to help you figure out what supplies you'll need if this is your first time canning. Lots of recipes, too! Here are some of my favorites:
Pick Your Own is a fantastic resource for learning how to can pretty much anything.
Fresh Preserving has step-by-step videos on canning different types of goods, and they have an online shop where you can purchase canning jars and more.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation is another great resource with plenty of safety tips and recipes.
Sunset has a great article that gives you a basic outline for throwing a canning party. Recipes included, too.
Canning Pantry is where I buy most of the supplies that I can't find locally. They have everything you'll need!
© 2010 Kristen Magee // Paper Crave
And here are canning party themed printable invitations with coordinating envelope liners - I sized the liners to fit 4 Bar envelopes from Paper Source. I've also made matching jar tags and labels, as well as recipe cards that you can include when you send the invites.
;)
© 2010 Kristen Magee // Paper Craveinvitations / envelope liners
jar tags / jar tags in rectangles
recipe cards
circle labels
Reader Comments (39)
Sounds like fun! I would love to go to one of these- I could learn by doing with people who know how (or don't) and it would take the "fear" out of trying something new.
This is is cute! I love it - and your timing is perfect. I do cooking demonstrations on Sundays - next Sunday is "Saving Summer". Thanks as always - I'll send you pictures of how they turn out!!
I agree, Michelle. I am very confident as a cook, but there's something mysterious about canning that has always kept me from doing it. When Kristen proposed this idea, I went for it without a second thought! I think the comfort of having others around to encourage and share in the inevitable mishaps is very appealing. I'm searching my calendar for the first available date to host a canning bee!
Cam, love this! Let's do one in my kitchen. This might be the last week of blueberries at Champneys, but I's love to do pickles and corn relish.
I love this printable set...it is adorable!!
I used some on my jars yesterday! I put up tomatoes, pickles, and blueberry jam. thanks- Beth
I'm new to canning and this sounds like a great idea. I'm sure our church would let us use the space too. Thanks for the labels and inspiration :)
I just put a link to this post on my sidebar. I really appreciate you sharing this :)
Congratulations! Your post made this week's Top 5 Hits at Singing With Birds. Come check it out and grab a blog button, and thanks for sharing such a creative idea!
I absolutely LOVE your great artwork here. Thanks SO much for sharing!!
kathleen
Thanks so much for sharing. This set is so sweet. The cutest labels I've ever seen.
These are adorable! Thanks so much!!!!!
I had a neighbor who canned fruits and vegetables like a mad woman. Looked a little time consuming for my tastes but she thoroughly enjoyed it so that's all that matters :)
What a great tag! Visiting from Tip Junkie.
~Kimberlee
www.TheSpunkyDiva.blogspot.com
These are so cute - thanks for sharing. I don't have room to have a canning party, but the envelope liner and jar would make such a cute card to go with a canned gift.
Oh man, those printable invitations really are CUTE :-)
Thanks for these cute labels!
Love, love, love!!! Thank you for sharing. I fully itend to use these for Pumpkin Butter I will be making soon and for Christmas (canned of course) gifts!
This is very cute. The nice labels I've ever seem. Thank you for sharing.
Free Brazilian Recipes
In times past, canning and "putting food up" was a community affair. At the very least, neighbors showed up to help each other. In those times, however, the only food that would be available to a family would often be the food they had raised during the growing months. And things went faster and were more enjoyable when a whole group joined in.
Great post. Thanks. It brought back wonderful childhood memories.
Love this idea! This brought back to many good memories for me. The printables are super cute! I featured this post on TheRedPolkaDot. have a great weekend
This Canning Party printable collection is gorgeous. Reminds me of the day my grandmother would can fruit and veggies ... and my mom has friends who still make jellies and jams. yum! I'm going to share the labels with them. Thanks so much!!!!
I just had to let you know that these are so super adorable and fun ! I love the vintage look ! I can not wait to show my sister in law who I can with each summer. It's going to be so fun to add these to our little get together with friends & Family. Thank-you so much
This is delightful! I think I must be missing something. I don't see a link for the actual invitations?
Love them... Pinning right now ;)
love this idea - i am going to feature this sunday for Mason Jar Sunday :)
merci pour ces si jolies étiquettes
Thanks !
As a non-techie I'm not sure how I can edit/add my info to the blank tags. Maybe I don't have the right software on my computer because the pdfs do not appear as editable to me. Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing these, saving for next summer!
This may be a silly question, but what is the thread that you use called? The kind with white and another color twisted together? I've looked for it everywhere and because I don't know what it's called it's hard to explain what I'm looking for to the craft store employees. By the way, I have used these printables before (tied with twine) and they're just perfect! Thank you so much for making them available and free :)
I love jar tags, thank you
Thank you so much for sharing these! I have been looking for tags! I'm going to use them to label my homemade brownie, pancake and oatmeal mixes! Thanks again :)
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for these!!!
Hi!
I tried to download the freebies but somehow failed. The message im getting is that the file is damaged. Can you upload a new one? I really badly want it because its so lovely!!!!!!
Thanks!
I just love these, and plan to use them for a canning party in the future...I want to thank you for having them available for free!! Am I blind, or is there not a link for the actual invitation? I see the labels the circle labels, the envelope liners, and the recipe cards....Thanks!
@Natnarin - all the downloads look good on my end. These are really big files, though, and sometimes if your download stops in the middle, you may get an error message. Try right-clicking (or control-clicking on a Mac) to save directly to your computer.
@Megan - they're there! The invitations are the very first link—hiding in plain sight, I guess!
Thank you so much for these lovely tags : ))
I really falling for them ! <3
I am using these for my sister's bridal shower! THANK YOU!