Champagne Congrats

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday was not such a good day for me! 

During the morning I just wasn't feeling right, I felt very lethargic, and tired.

At lunch time I went into the bedroom to get my tablets, and saw I hadn't taken my morning tablets! DOH! 

Needless to say I took what I needed to, and within a couple of hours I was feeling , oh so much brighter!

Once I was back in the swing of things,I  knew I wanted to CASE another swap for today's card. 

It's a strikingly, fairly plain card in Real Red and Whisper White that I received from Maureen (Mo) Rootes - please see the last picture. 

You can check out Maureen's blog at www.crafty-rootes.com. 

Although I'm happy with how my card turned out, I wished I'd stuck to Mo's colour scheme!

The bottle is from the Bubble Over Stamp Set, and ever since I saw this stamp set for the first time, I wondered if the bottle - which looks like a beer or pop bottle to me - could be changed to look like a Champagne bottle, and that was my challenge to myself!

To achieve this I started by inking the largest bottle stamp in Versamark, then inkinking it in Always Artichoke Ink; and then I stamped it on a piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS). 
 
After I dipped the image into Clear Embossing Powder, I heat set it using my Heat Tool.

Although there is a die in the Bottles & Bubbles Framelits Dies to die cut the bottle, I chose to cut it out by hand. 

By doing this, I was able to cut the bottle straight to the top of the bottle, thereby cutting off the two rims that protude at the top of the bottle neck, which is what gives the bottle a beer-bottle and pop-bottle look!  

The second part of the bottle that gives it it's characteristics, are the two white lines that go round the centre of the widest part of the bottle i.e. above and below where the label goes.

I trawled through my Stamp Reference File to find stamps that would allow me to produce something that resembled a wine bottle label. 

I'm quite happy with the result, and I think the condensation on the bottle helps to distract the eye from looking too closely at the label!

Needless to say, it took me several attempts before I settled on the design you see here! 

I started with Always Artichoke Ink, and the straight line stamp that's in the Spooky Cat Stamp Set; this is a Halloween Stamp Set in the Christmas Catalogue. 

I don't celebrate Halloween, and the only reason I bought the stamp set, was for the cat's face stamp.

I thought it'd go brilliantly with the Cat Punch, although I have to admit, I haven't checked my theory yet! LOL!

Next I found a stamp in the Hostess Stamp Set called Background Bits, that was five lines of very fine script which I believe is illegible. 

Using Basic Black Archival Ink, I stamped it directly onto the straight Always Artichoke lines. 

I needed something to soften the edges and hubby suggested leaves - brilliantly idea, they worked a treat!

I used the solid background two-step leaves stamp from the Painted Harvest Stamp Set and stamped the leaves randomly top and bottom.

I used another die from the Bottles & Bubbles Framelits dies to cut the label out. 

Whilst making sure the label covered the two lines, I adhered it to the bottle, and trimmed off the excess on both sides!

To finish my card I stamped some Sahara Sand bubbles coming out of the bottle, and adhered some Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes on the bottles as condenstaion, and on the stamped bubbles to give them shine and dimension. 

Unfortunately, these shapes will be retiring at the end of May, so I'm going to stock up with a few packets as I think they're great for cards like this.
 
The Congrats sentiment is from the Vertical Greetings Stamp Set and was die cut with a die from the Bunch of Banners Framelits.
 
I stamped a row of bubbles inside the card and added Wink of Stellla to give them some shine too! 

As I said earlier, I'm pleased with how my card turned out, but I think it would hve been better if I'd used Real Red instead of Sweet Sugarplum!

That's about it from me today; until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.