...Introducing Coffee Set and a Mini Coffee bag 'How-To'

Warning - Long post -  many pictures...

Good Afternoon! Welcome to the third day of sample previews for our June Release. All of the new goodies I'm sharing over the last few days will be available at the Waltzingmouse Stamps Store tomorrow. The release will go live at 7:00pm my time.

We are releasing 6 new stamp set sand 6 new dies - and I still have oodles to show you so I'll get on with it...

My samples this afternoon are made with the new Coffee Set stamp set. This is a 6x8 set and it is chock full of coffee goodness. If I told you there was 48 stamps in this set would you believe me....

The set features a retro style Coffee set, complete with different styles of cups, a creamer and a grinder, a sugar bowl a cupcake, some floral motifs, coffee beans, the list goes on. There are 21 sentiment sets within the set and you can be sure you will be covered for every eventuality.

This coffee pot has been rolling around in my head for a long time now and when I finally got my hands on the stamp - the first thing I wanted to do was create a toleware style coffee pot. I stamped the coffee pot in black versafine ink - and immediately clear embossed it. I picked out the floral detail with brighly coloured copics. (BG34, YG23, YR16 and R46) I absolutely adore this look. I think it really captures something of the essence of tole.  Here's an example I found at Z&K Antiques on the web. Toleware is basically painted metal, usually kitchenware items. It's a little folksy, very collectible and vintage without being stuffy.

 I set out my Coffee pot and footed mugs on a simple white background and then added a frame. I made the frame using a spellbinders circle die - which I partially cut but just making sure that the top plate of my die cut system was lined up on the area of the circle where I wanted the cut to end.

 The mini gingham table cloth was made by stamping Mini Pinstripe stamp onto aqua coloured cardstock. I stamped it once and then turned the stamp 90 degrees to get the mini gingham. I edged my tablecloth with some white lacy edging - this is a strip of white card cut with the Picot Panel die. I cut one little strip of the scalloped edging and divided it in half. I then cut each end at 45 degree angles and butted them together to get the point.

The 'Little Something' to go with my card is a Mini Coffee Bag filled with a little coffee infusion - you could add tea bags if your 'person' is a tea drinker, or a hot chocolate sachet, or cinnamon, or sugar...the list is endless. I'm more than happy to put a tea bag directly into a paper bag that  have made from fresh clean patterned paper - but you can wrap your tea bag in a little cling film if you are not happy with your tea bags having direct contact with your paper.

I co-ordinated my baggie with a matching snippet of the tablecloth and also a little die cut footed mug in the same pattern as my card.

Of the 21 sentiments in Coffee set, I think this is one of the cutest - 'Cheers to the Happy Cupple' and this would work great for either coffee or tea drinkers. I made a confetti card for my wedding  card sample. 

 I paired the sentiment with two of the little coffee (or tea) cups in the set - each of which was die cut with the matching dies (also available tomorrow). The Mini Coffee Bag hooks onto the front of the card for display but is easily removable if you want to get the confetti out. I used some peachy toned sequins for my confetti.

I simply attached a little rectangle of card to the reverse of the mini Bag. The folded down portion simply hooks over the circular cut out portion of the card. Simple pimple.

The mini Bag was decorated with some tiny paper blooms and a little tiny doily - which is a piece of white card cut with the Pretty Circles Die set. I just trimmed a little bit off to slide up under the top fold of the baggie.

Mini Coffee Bag How-To

 I think these Mini Coffee Bags would make adorable party favours, among other things, and I have a  little info here that will help you to get the most of of them.

The first thing you should know is that these are small bags, but it is surprising just how much you can fit into them. The finished size of a mini Coffee Bag is 2.75 inches tall, by just under 1.5 inches wide, by 0.75 inches deep at the bottom.

Pic 1. This picture shows the mini Coffee Bag die and a piece of patterned paper that has been die cut. I like to put my patterned paper on to the die with the pattern facing the die and the plain white side facing out. I find it easier to make the folds when I have done it this way.

Pic 2. The piece of die that creates the window of the baggie is attached to the main body of the die by three thin pieces of metal. This is so that you have the option to remove the window piece with a pair of metal snips, to create closed bags with no window. I prefer the look of the bags with a window, so I'm going to leave my die intact, but you do have the option to create plain bags.

Pic 3. This is the die cut from Pic 1 flipped over right side up. You can see which folds should be mountain folds and which should be valley folds. Also you really only need two pieces of tape to form the bag. You can see the long strip of double sided tape down the far right flap. You will need one piece of tape on the reverse of the largest of the flaps along the bottom - I've folded it up for this pic so you can see where to place it.

Pic 4. If you are adding a clear window pane, now is the time to add that. Depending on what is going in your bag you could use a little snippet of the clear bag that your WMS stamps come packaged in, or you could use food safe film from discarded food wrappings. I got the plastic for these bags from a clear plastic bread bag that I was able to snaffle when I got the bread home and popped it into the bread bin.

 Pic 5. Your bag is nearly finished and you could just fold the top flap down in half, and then fold it down again and adhere at the back, but I have an idea that might tickle. - To Turn your little coffee bag into a proper tin tie Coffee Bag try this: add a little fine wire into the fold on the top flap. I get my fine wire from those little tin tie bag fasteners that you get with plastic lunchbags, like these ones below that you can buy from Lakeland. I strip the plastic off them (carefully, using my craft knife) to use in these coffee bags - they would be too bulky for the fold otherwise. You could also use fine florist wire, fine jewellery wire, fine fuse wire, etc.

 Pic 6. Shows how I position my tape on one side of the fold. I popped the wire on towards the centre of the fold on the top flap.

 Pic 7. Once you have folded over the top flap the bag is now finished, ready to be filled and sealed by simply folding the top flap forward once and pushing the side pieces round towards the back of the bag - just like you would with a 'real' large coffee bag.

   

Pic 8 and 9. Just a note about papers. All of the Coffee bags I made with good quality papers worked a treat with the thin wire. You can see the corners at the top of the bag are nice and clean and I could re-open and re-close these bags with ease without the wire showing through the top flap. I noticed that if I used a cheap thin paper that the wire can begin to poke through at the corners, the bag still works well, but for weddings and special occasions I would stick to good quality papers if using the wire. If I'm not using the wire, and just adhering the bag closed, it is not an issue.

For Food safety I would recommend using foodsafe papers such as Bacofoil Lined Parchement, or wrapping your food in clear food film before placing in any paper bag that you are unsure of.

Hope it tickles! I'll be back later today/tomorrow with more samples and a schedule for release day also!