Photo Label Tutorial

Does it ever drive you nuts when your kids just toss all their toys into a giant pile and that is their idea of picking up?  Well, it drives me insane!  I am a person who likes to sort, things need to be stored with like things.  It makes things easier to find.  I am not a neat freak, my house is quite disorganized, but there are certain areas of the house that I have tackled and been trying to keep up with the organization.  The toy area in our living room is one of them.  We don't have a dedicated play room, if we did, I am sure I would just shut the door and not be bothered with it.  Since that isn't the case, this is the solution I have come up with.

I bought some mobile drawers and have used that to keep the clutter of toys at bay.  For the most part it works.  I can thank my 3 year old for helping keep everything organized, because I think I passed down the "sorting/matching" gene to him.  My 16 month old did not get that gene.  He is utter chaos and I am hoping that the photo toy labels will help him when it comes to picking up.

Now, I will show you just how easy it is to create these labels. I was so happy with how they turned out, I think I just might create a bunch of these labels for my craft room.

What you need:
Camera
White Poster Board
Printer
Shipping Labels
Photo Editing Software
Microsoft Word
Toys

I first set up my photo area.  I taped my poster board to a chair and put it near a window.

So professional right?  But the outcome was exactly what I wanted.

Once I had taken photos of a handful of items from each drawer, I uploaded all my photos to Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and cropped to the same size as my shipping labels, touched up my photos and added the text.

I then opened up Microsoft Word.  I have version 2007.  In that version, you need to select "Mailings," then "Labels."  It will open up a window and you will select "Options..." and then the make and number of your labels.  Mine were made by Avery and the number was 6878.  You then select, "New Document" and it has the format all set up for you.  All you have to do now is insert your photos.

I printed out my completed labels and they looked great!

All I had to do now was stick them to the drawer fronts and I was done!  My 3 year old watched me do this part and was fascinated and super excited about them.  Now all I can do is hope this helps the little one learn that all his toys have a place to be put away.  He is young still, so I am optimistic that it will catch on.

I am so happy with how it looks.  All I have been doing now is thinking of all the things I can label.