We’ve never had to buy egg cartons before. Normally we reuse the cartons that are generously returned to us (I might have to design some stickers for those fine folks. “I save my egg cartons!” 🏆) But after a typical winter egg shortage, followed by an increased demand thanks to the crazy high price tags at the grocery stores, we were left nearly cartonless. I’ve always admired the pretty custom-designed cartons of homesteaders on Pinterest and Instagram, stamped with their cute logos and clever catch phrases. I scrolled through Etsy and even looked up some printing websites for stickers, but wasn’t finding anything that I could consider “affordable”, being as we sell our eggs ridiculously cheaper than most around here, and a 50 cent sticker really jumps up the price for a dozen eggs.

So, as always, I went with the do-it-myself-for-more-work-but-less-money route. I found blank, *pink* paper cartons online (not as durable as the styrofoam, but more affordable for now). I drew up my own design on my iPad and printed them out on Cardstock paper, cut them out individually, and then used those little sticky glue tab things to stick them to the cartons until I ran out and had to plug in the ol’ hot glue gun. Yeesh! After cutting out only 3 labels from one sheet and realizing that it would take way too much paper and also prevent the cartons from stacking together nicely, I went back to the iPad and designed smaller ones for the front.

These worked a lot better. Then I decided to make some different labels for the duck eggs, since those are priced higher.

I really need to order different cartons entirely for the duck eggs, since they’re so much bigger and cause the chicken egg cartons to tear. I always end up having to tie twine or ribbon around them to keep them shut.

See?! Ripped tab. But gosh does it look cute!

I’ve made a sign in the farmstand promoting a price drop when you return your cartons. So hopefully that’ll help us not have to purchase more new ones…. But I won’t complain if I did have to buy more, say, navy blue cartons… 😉 It’s just so much fun!