Fish Paste and Cocktails......

Morning, no that's not a recipe for breakfast - it's just a quick sum up of today's blog post!

Today is the 5th Birthday of Newton's Nook and they have some fabulous new products available which we have live in store now too and I've managed to play with a couple of them already for today's post.

Firstly, I've been itching to create some fishy tiles for our loo as I hate the ones that are in there and I couldn't find any I liked in the stores.  So here's the first one I made thanks to the new Tropical Fish stencil from Newton's Nook and a little bit of mousse (the paste element of my title) from Tonic......

I started with a plain blue tile (9cm square in this case, and I would say that a tile larger than the stencil is easier unless you use spray adhesive, which I have coming today!)

 

So either tape the stencil to (or over) your clean tile (a quick wipe with surgical spirit or white vinegar to make sure there is no grease is a good preparation step) and then just carefully spread a layer or mousse over the top.   Remove carefully whilst still wet, wash your stencil then set it aside to dry.

 

Even though the mousse is a water based product, once it is thoroughly dry it sets like rock and water doesn't affect it (I soaked this with water and left it to test it).   I am not sure how well it would hold up to detergent and scrubbing, but a gentle wipe would be fine.  I got very excited by this, so have started to test out some other designs....

Here's a work in progress using 3 shades of mousse to get a sort of marble effect using the serene stripe stencil from the last Newton's Nook release on a 2ft long tile.  I've masked off a strip and will just keep flipping the stencil over to the front and back to get the wave to run across.  You have to let each one dry before doing the next so you don't ruin it with the edge of the stencil so it will take a couple of days for me to complete this 36" tile but it would make a fab accent in the bathroom.

However, back to this release, and I couldn't resist the fab new punny mini stamps they've released.  Such fun!  I was drawn to the Koala, you know me by  now, anything cocktail related and I'm right there!!!

So to emphasise the cocktail theme, I've bobbed my Koala into a margarita shaker!  I created my own fun background paper using strips cut from the Cue the Confetti pad from Reverse Confetti glued on the diagonal on a white panel from which I then cut an opening to pop my shaker pouch through.  To get my koala to go inside the glass, I used a craft knife to carefully cut a slit in the top of the pouch just long enough to wedge his bottom into.   I filled the glass with sherbet mix sequins and finished with the fun pun over the glass.

OK, back to getting your orders out before our break but I will be back on Sunday with my regular post.

Tara