A serious suggestion, if you want something looking a little more formal than using felt pen - I do labels on my computer. It's just a standard text file but you can also put pictures on if you really want. You CAN put label stock in your printer, and print directly onto these peel-off things, but I just print onto plain paper then cut them out with scissors and use book-binder's sticky tape (it's extra wide) to hold it all down.
I labelled difficult child 3's schoolwork drawers this way - he has six drawers, one for each subject. When the work comes in by mail, I sort it out into subjects and put them in the drawers. When difficult child 3 does his schoolwork he chooses what he wants to do and also checks each drawer to make sure he's done all the Week 6 work before he begins Week 7, and so on. If I find stuff kicking around the house relating to a particular subject, I just put it in the drawer it belongs to. A calculator goes in the maths drawer; his German CDs go in his German drawer; paintbrushes and pens go in the top drawer for art supplies.
When difficult child 3 was learning to talk and also learning to read, I did labels on the computer for all the common things around the house - door, window, drawer, chair, table, bench - and because I did them in about 18 pt bold, it still fitted neatly under the width of standard sticky tape. I just cut out each little word, laid it on the bench and picked it up with the tape then stuck the tape down where I wanted it. I did this for difficult child 3's best friend, too. Works brilliantly!
I also make my home-made tomato relish, herb oils & vinegars and strawberry jam and bottle them to look as professional as possible. I make up larger labels, complete with a list of ingredients and recommended uses, and print them off on plain paper also. I then cut them up and use my 3" wide sticky tape to go right over the labels on all four sides, and wrap around the jar. If I'm giving them away for Christmas or birthdays, I add a greeting to personalise it. It's amazingly fast but looks like I've taken ages to do it.
To get them off - easy. The sticky tape is easy to pull off without leaving a sticky residue and if I can't find the end of it, I just soak it off. Only takes a few minutes.
A problem with using felt pens to label things - with some surfaces (especially some plastics) the water-based pens won't write, and the solvent-based pen won't come off. So I stick down some tape first, then write over the tape. Peels off really easily when I need it to. I only use felt pen when I'm labelling food for the freezer. Everything else, like jar labels, drawer labels etc - the computer printout.
Dunno where the Dymo's got to these days, We just don't use it any more.
Marg
I've never had luck with the label makers.
