Who's Thirsty?

I've got 3 cards with a drink theme for you today - all were lots of fun to make and the theme is very handy for birthdays for guys or gals!

This first one was pretty hard to photograph as I die cut my margarita glass from acetate and vellum which are never camera friendly but I hope you can see the idea.  The glass top is frosted with glitter for the authentic salt rim.  Some distress ink "smooching" and splattering created the background and the sentiments are from Avery Elle's Happy Hour stamp set which is designed to work with the glasses.  A slice of lemon (card and vellum) and a few sequins finish the look.

I kept the same background idea here but this one is more kid friendly with a bottle of exploding limeade - this time the bottle was die cut from white card and coloured with distress inks before adding the straw and layering a vellum diecut over the top. I added a black bottle shadow diecut behind to make it "pop".  The sentiment is from the complimentary Soda Pop stamp set.   Finished again with some sequins, this time in clear.

Finally I couldn't resist the traditional coke bottle shape that also comes in the die set and fancied making something really fun so I die cut a few bottle tops from the complimentary die.  The coke bottle is coloured with distress markers (gathered twig) and then shaped and glued with gel for a curved 3D look.  I mounted it on a semi-circle of bokeh paper from Lawn Fawn (currently out of stock but I am waiting on a re-order to ship so it will be back soon).  The semi-circular shape is emphasised with some silver twine connecting all the bottle-tops together.  The sentiment is heat embossed on black card and cut out by hand to fit the shape.  The base card has embossed detail courtesy of a stitched rectangle die but just using 3 sides of it and allowing it to hang over the folded edge of the card.   You could use any rectangle here - we have lots of options in store.

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• We have a delivery from Lil' Inker Designs coming next week which has their latest release, restocks AND their upcoming release which we will have ready for release day on the 8th October.  This has some stunning Christmas goodies in it!
• We have a huge restock order in with Lawn Fawn we are waiting on them to ship.  When they have big releases they often sell out so it can take 2 or 3 weeks for them to turn around orders and I don't know until I get it what is and isn't available.   Hopefully we will get all we wanted and soon!
• I've been waiting over 5 weeks for Neat and Tangled to get some items back in stock so again am waiting on my order with them to ship still.  Fingers crossed that will be soon too.

There are lots of big releases coming in October:

• Wplus9 on 5th October - if you're on Periscope then you may have seen Dawn showing some sneaks of those and water colouring one of the Christmas sets.   We're on Periscope too now and plan to show you the new releases there in a little more detail as they arrive.
• Lil' Inker Designs on 8th October
• Mama Elephant's 3rd Birthday release on 15th October
• My Favorite Things will have a release the first week of October too
• Paper Smooches have a release of 3 stamps and 9 dies coming up as well!

Make mine 3 Margaritas!

Good morning all.  Wow what a release week we've had.  We had more orders than ever before so didn't quite manage to get all of Friday's orders in the post before the post office closed at noon but we're all caught up now so everything received this weekend will ship first thing in the morning.

With almost 100 new products in store it was really hard to choose one thing to play with today but as my girlfriends and I do LOVE a cocktail I decided to make the fabulous new Margarita die from Avery Elle my focus and with a few add ons have 3 very different cards to share.....

For the first card I used the die as it was intended, as a shaker.  If you find shaker cards tricky then pop out and buy a sheet of foam from the kids department of you local craft store and get some stick-it from us - these two products together make shaker cards SUPER easy!!!

For this card I used the colour of my sequins as my inspiration - these are the new mermaids tail ones from Neat and Tangled.   Here's a quick step by step guide to making the shaker.

• Die cut the margarita glass including the "inner bit" from a sheet of white foam covered with stick-it on the back twice and once with stick-it on BOTH sides of the foam.
• Die cut it once more including the "inner bit" from a sheet of white card.
• Colour the card (if you want or leave it plain).  I used copics in blue and purple to shade the glass using the blender pen to make a seamless transfer between the two in the middle.  
• Die cut the glass WITHOUT the inner bit from a sheet of acetate.   
• Stamp your sentiment from the co-ordinating set Happy Hour on your base card using the card version of your die cut to make sure you have it where you want it.
• Layer up your foam die cuts ensuring that the one with stick-it on both sides is on top.  Leave the release paper on the top.  Stick your stacked dies onto your base card.
• Add your sequins and then remove the release tape from the stick-it.
• Stick your acetate on top to hold the sequins in.
• Stick your card die cut over the acetate and give it a shake!

You can see from this side shot how much dimension the foam gives you - so much easier than messing around with bits of foam tape on your card stock.  You could just use one layer if you wanted to mail this but you'd not get many sequins in.

To finish the card I added one of the gorgeous new frame die cuts (I should have cut these from foam too but forgot so you can see I had to mess around with foam tape lol!)  This is the double-pierced rectangle from Avery Elle.   I simply coloured it in one of the same blues as I used on the glass.

OK, so Margarita number 2.......

If you don't want to make shaker cards, then this die is still perfect to use on its own as an element for folks who like a drink - my girlfriends will be seeing this die a lot!    Here I've paired it with the great new sentiment "main squeeze" stamp from WPlus9 which is a great match!

You could die cut the glass from card stock but I thought I'd use vellum so I could place it over the large sentiment.  I cut the lemon from vellum too and used copics to colour it - I love how you get the segments to layer on top!  I added some stickles to the top of the glass to look like a salted rim.   I added colour using distress inks and the "smushing" technique and then a few splatters with a paintbrush.  

This die is such a good size that you could also use it to make mini cards or gift tags.   Same with the complimentary wine glass die.

Margarita number 3.........

No, I've not lost the plot from late night parcel packing!  When I die cut the shaker, I popped the "inner bits" on my desk upside down and they instantly looked like a classic flying saucer so I knew I had to do something with them.   My husband is a sci-fi fan so when I showed him the space ship he said it needs to abduct a cow (no I don't get how his brain works either!!!) and hence I created this crazy little card. 

The foam was coloured with copics and I used some vellum and stickles for the "abduction beam"  I used a black base card and added a grassy die cut and some stars for the background.  The cow is from Critters on the Farm and I used a little artistic licence to draw on a surprised expression and a tongue....

Catch you next week
Tara

NEWS FROM THE STORE:

• Altenew restocks plus the new mini ink pads will be here Monday or Tuesday.
• Stamping Bella will be here this week (fingers crossed)
• Lil' Inker Designs latest release will be here this week too.