Half & Half....

I hope you're all enjoying the Papertrey July release festivities!  Tonight is the first group post of the countdown and the team is featuring a great new set by Nichole.  It's one of those that's destined to become one of those great can't-stamp-without-it basics!  

The set is called Half & Half and it contains these really neat banner/border strips along with some decorative bracket elements to match and some great sentiments.  There are dies to match and they really open up a whole new world of design possibilities!  All of these products will be available from Papertrey Ink on the 15th of July.  

For my project tonight, I created a housewarming gift for some friends of ours that just built and moved into a new home.  We decided to treat them to a couple of bottles of wine.  

I used the new Half & Half dies to creates some fun hang-tags for the bottles.  I cut two Half & Half strips for each bottle.  One out of cardstock on which I stamped "celebrate" from the set (I inked just a portion of one of the sentiments).  I labeled them "His" and "Hers" using the Simple Alphabet...with some of the issues they faced building this house, they really do each deserve their own bottle!  :-)

I then diecut the house from the Love Lives Here die collection from the front strip and backed it with the second Half & Half strip which was cut from patterned paper.  I left the back strip longer and folded it around to the front and added a button.  This works exceptionally well if you have double sided paper (like I did on the red tag)...this allows that backside pattern to show on the top of the tag where it is folded over.  If you're not using double-sided paper, just cut a separate little strip, adhere it to the back side of the tag and then fold it to the front (I did this on the teal tag).  I embellished each one with a vintage gold button from my stash.  They are tied around the bottles with ball chain.

And of course I needed a handmade card to go along with it, right?  Nichole challenged the team to use the Half & Half strips in both a horizontal and vertical orientation, so for my card, I used it horizontally.  The sentiment is from the new Congrats All Ways set, also being released on the 15th of this month.  I love how I was able to create a little word art using the sentiment from the new Congrats set along with the flourished bracket from the new Half & Half.  I topped the flourish off with a heart from Love Lives Here.  

I used the same design on my card as I did on the wine tags...I diecut two Half & Half strips, then stamped and diecut on the front strip, allowing the back strip to show through.  The pretty patterned papers are a mix from Crate, Basic Grey, and My Mind's Eye.  I wanted the colors to be warm and inviting, just what you would want in a new home!

 

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's project and the peek at the new Half & Half set!  It's a goodie!  Now check out what the rest of the team did with the set....

• Danielle Flanders
• Jess Witty
• Erin Lincoln
• Maile Belles
• Nichole Heady
• Lisa Johnson
• Dawn McVey
• Heather Nichols
• Melissa Phillilps
• Michelle Wooderson

Supplies not yet linked: 
Half & Half stamp set and coordinating dies
Congrats All Ways stamp set 
(both will be available July 15th from Papertrey Ink)