There are many crafts you can do with the label from your favorite adult beverage bottle….but, first you have to get the label off the bottle! If you’re lucky, the type of glue used on your label is one that is easy to get off. Some are actually impossible to remove. So, here’s wishing your favorite brew/wine has a label you can remove!
Start by collecting your favorite bottles. That’s the easy part 😊
There are several methods you can try to remove the labels: Soap & Water Soak, Baking Soda & Water Soak, Bake & Peel Method, Oxi-Clean & Water Soak, among others. For this Tutorial I’m showing you how to use the Baking Soda & Water Soak.
I have links below that you can click on, that will lead you to some websites I found in my research with instructions for the other methods noted.
I’ve tried the first 3 methods with varying results. I can’t wait to try the Oxi-Clean & Water method the next time I need bottle labels!
But the easiest method to try first, is the method that requires supplies you already have at home. See if that method works, before purchasing anything. A good Soap & Water Soak will get many labels off. I’ve tried the bake and peel method, but with poor results, so I don’t recommend it. Since I personally have had the best results with the Baking Soda & Water Soak method, I created this tutorial to share my results.
Baking Soda & Water Soak Method:
Supplies Needed:
A Bucket – or something to soak your bottles in, even if you can only do a few at a time
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda per 2 Cups of Water
Water
A measuring cup
Tablespoon measuring spoon
Wax paper – to place labels on, once they are removed from the bottle
Paper towels
Your favorite beer and/or wine bottles
Fill your soaking bucket with the measured amounts of water to baking soda noted above.
Mix thoroughly
Add your bottles to the soaking bucket one at a time, filling each with the water/baking soda solution as you place them inside
Once all of the bottles have been added to the soaking bucket, fill the bucket with more water/baking soda solution until the bottles are covered in the solution.
Let soak for 2 hours, check one bottle to see if the label will easily peel off. Be careful not to rip the label. If they are still stuck, you will need to soak them overnight. You can see in the picture below that the label is already coming up at one spot, so this is where you will begin to peel the label off
Once you have the label fully removed from the bottle, you will immediately place it on a sheet of wax paper. As you pull off the sheet of was paper, measure it against the size of the label. Use a piece that is slightly larger than your label, so you don’t waste any wax paper.
Then place the label on the wax paper, label side up, and dab dry with a paper towel.
That’s all there is to it! Once the labels are fully dry, you can use them to create a huge variety of projects!
Below is an example of a label that didn’t peel off in one piece, and had to be thrown away, which is always a bummer:
And here’s an example of what you would love to see when you go check your soak bucket, a label hanging off completely. But, the other bottle’s label hasn’t budged, and I was never able to get the other label off.
Follow these links to a few other websites that have information related to bottle label removal:
This link is by Popular Mechanics! Who’d have thought they’d have a great bottle label removal tutorial: How to Remove a Bottle Label
This is a fun link by Thirsty Bastards, a beer culture site, that’s tried several methods: How to Remove Bottle Labels, intact, in 15 minutes
Now that you have your label off, what can you do with them? There are unlimited ideas for using your favorite labels. I made a few Christmas tree ornaments with mine:
More project tutorials coming on how to use your labels.
Cheers!
Keepsake Crafter