Removing Wine Labels

Seth has been "collecting"and displaying each new wine bottle he finishes. (sometimes I help with the finishing) And they have taken up residence on the top of our kitchen cabinets. I have finally gotten tired of the cluttered look, because there are a lot of them, and decided to do something about it. He mainly keeps them for the labels, so I thought I'd put my craftiness to good use and remove the labels for a future yet-to-be-determined decoupaging project.

I found this good resource for removing the labels.

After reading about some of the "dry methods" for removal, I thought, why not use the microwave?! So, I tried it and it worked great! ...until I found a label that was apparently made with some kind of foil. But, here's what I did up until my oops:

• First thing to know: not all labels will work with this method. Do not use any label that has any kind of metallic design on it! Also, the papery kind of labels won't work. Those must use a different type of glue. Basically, the labels that look like stickers and have no metallic design "should" work.
• Remove the wrapper around the bottle neck, since 60% of the time these are made of foil.
• Place the bottle in the microwave on it's side and "cook" for 75 seconds.
• Test the back label to see if the glue has become soft enough to remove the label. If so, it's probably safe to peel off the front label. If not, cook for another 30 seconds and try again.

I tried the oven (set at warm) to remove the papery labels and it just kind of baked them - they were much more brown and still didn't come off.

Then I tried to steam them, but I don't think I left it there long enough, 'cause the label just ripped when I gently tugged on it - I think maybe I should have let it sit over the steam long enough to fall off on it's own.

I plan to try the other "wet/submerged methods" for the rest of our bottle and hope that works!