Yesterday I spent some time in my craft studio looking at different colour combinations for future projects.  With all the new colours in the Stampin’ Up! range I wanted to explore some options.  Poppy Parade is a vibrant bright red that I haven’t used much but it goes beautifully with black and white.  Of course as soon as I saw them together I immediately thought ‘Christmas’, and before I knew it I’d created a Santa’s Apron bottle tag.

SANTA’S APRON TAG BASE

The base of the tag is a strip of Poppy Parade Card 2-3/4″ wide.

Using my Big Shot and Magnetic Platform I cut a hole towards the top using the #3 plain-edge die from the Layering Circles Framelits.  Then I used the same die to cut a hole in a piece of Whisper White Card.

I put the two circles to one side (I’d use them on another project) and and placed the #4 scalloped-edge die from the Layering Circles Framelits around the hole in the white piece.  I die-cut the white piece to create a frame that would be the ‘collar’ on Santa’s apron.

Before I attached the collar I decided I wanted to add some texture so I spritzed the card very lightly with some clean water.  Then I placed the card inside the Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder with the embossed lines going horizontally across the tag.  I placed the folder directly onto the multipurpose platform with all the tabs open and the hinge to the side.  A single cutting pad was placed on top and I ran the embossing folder forwards and backwards through the Big Shot.

The tag base was actually too long for the embossing folder (even though it’s 6″ x 6″), so I needed to emboss a second time.  I placed the card back into the folder with only the unembossed part of the card inside.  Then I embossed the piece again.  This embossing folder is very forgiving so the join in the embossed areas is quite hard to spot.

CHRISTMAS CHEER

The ‘some Christmas cheer for you’ sentiment comes from the Takeout Treats Stamp Set in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalogue.  It was stamped onto a piece of Whisper White Card using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

Going back to the Big Shot and Magnetic Platform I now needed the Layering Squares Framelits to cut out the sentiment and mat layer.  I used the #3 scalloped-edged die to cut out the sentiment, and the #3 plain-edged die for a piece of Gold Foil Sheet.

I was finally ready to put it all together.

ASSEMBLING THE BOTTLE TAG

Using Tear and Tape Adhesive I fixed a long length of Basic Black 3/8″ Shimmer Ribbon across the tag.  This would be my apron strings to tie the tag onto the bottle.

Then I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the white ‘collar’ around the hole at the top.

More liquid glue was used to attach the sentiment to the Gold Foil Sheet.  Then the assembled sentiment was fixed over the ribbon with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

At this point I realised that I wanted my apron to have ‘buttons’, simply to mimic Santa’s coat.  I considered using card, pearls, and even real buttons, but they all seemed a bit plain, this was Santa’s apron after all.

In the end I found exactly what I needed in the Share What You Love Embellishment Kit.  Among other things, the embellishment kit contains 8 self-adhesive metal rose embellishments.  All I had to do was remove the backing and stick them onto the tag and I was done.

I’m really pleased with how this bottle tag turned out.  It’s a simple layout but the details make this anything but boring.  What do you think?

BUNDLE BONUS – the Takeout Treats Stamp Set can be purchased in a bundle with the Takeout Thinlits Dies.  I didn’t use these dies today, but if you want both you’ll save 10% if you use the single bundle item number.  You’ll find links to the bundles at the end of the product list if you want to look at this in more detail.

PRODUCT LIST