DIY Ice-Cream Soda for a Party or Wedding
Sep 11 2009
Inspired by Jordan Ferney's brilliant wedding concept for an Old Fashioned Soda Bar, I set out to create these fun, retro-inspired label designs for soda bottles that hark back to the glorious era of soda fountains! These can be used for your party or wedding to create your own Soda Shop or to add a gorgeous beverage stand to your Ice-Cream Parlour theme. Guests can select from a brightly coloured array of flavoured sodas to make their own delicious Ice-Cream Sodas!
For those who don't know, the Ice-Cream Soda, also known as a 'Spider' down here in Oz, is a mixture of flavoured soda and Ice-Cream. The carbonated soda causes the Ice-Cream to 'float' and also creates a foam on the surface (similar to beer). It is essentially a dessert beverage, and a very delicious one at that!
I've created labels for Root Beer, Sarsaparilla, Raspberry, Blueberry, Lemon, Lime, Orange and Cream Soda. You can download these below!
WHAT TO DO
Buy cheap, no brand, plain soda water bottles. Empty out a portion of the contents and replace with cordial or syrup using a funnel. You will have to experiment with the ratio of soda to syrup to find out what works best for you. You could even make your own syrups! This article, for example, has a good recipe for homemade soda syrup. You can find many like this on the web. If you're going with pre-made syrups- there are many available including for Root Beer, Sarsaparilla and Cream.
Once you've filled your bottles, soak them in boiling water for a couple of hours, peel off their labels and re-label them with the retro designs. I've printed them on photo quality semi-gloss white A4 paper, cut them out using a guillotine and taped them on the sides with double-sided tape before attaching to the bottle.
NOTE: This file is over 2mb. It may take some time to download. If you are having issues with downloading. please right click on the button and save the file to your computer.
IMPORTANT INFO
These labels are purely decorative, so if you get any liquid on your label, the ink on the labels may run or smudge or stain and destroy the design. If you use a photo quality paper there is less chance of this happening but I would still make sure you've filled the bottles with your syrup or cordial and wiped the bottles off before putting any of the labels on. Obviously, this also means you cannot store your bottles in ice! I haven't tested storing these in the fridge to see whether the condensation would affect the labels. However, an easy solution would be to avoid cold storage altogether and simply add ice to your soda glasses instead.
NOTE: This file is over 2mb. It may take some time to download. If you are having issues with downloading. please right click on the button and save the file to your computer.
TIPS FOR LARGE WEDDINGS OR PARTIES
If you're having a large party or wedding and re-labelling vast amounts of bottles is too time consuming and costly an excercise, a much easier alternative is to re-label only one of each flavour and use these purely as a display, as a sort of visual menu, for guests to choose their flavour. Have somebody serve the soda, behind the bar, into old-fashioned soda glasses with soda that you have bought in bulk. You will still have that feel of a Soda Shop but without the time and expense.
I've also created these bottle top labels that are handy to hide any branding from your original soda bottle. I've provided two font options for each soda flavour. You can choose your favourite or you can use both and mix and match.
The circles in these bottle top designs are 2.5 cm in diameter. Either cut out very carefully by hand with a scissors, use a circle cutter, or a circle punch of a similar size. Attach to lid with double-sided tape.
Enjoy!
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FONTS USED IN THE ARTWORK FOR THIS PROJECT INCLUDE:
IMPORTANT NOTE: The downloadable pdfs in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. As a courtesy, if you wish to link to anything on this article, please link to this page and not directly to a downloadable file. Thanks for reading this boring footer stuff! :)
{all images by Amy Moss}
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RELATED ARTICLES:
DIY Ice-Cream Parlour "Make your own Sundaes" Buffet Concept for a Wedding or Party
Lots of visual inspiration, ideas, tips and free downloadable goodies to help you re-create your own old-fashioned Ice-Cream Parlour buffet for your party or wedding.
Some friends and I are going to use your icecream parlour and soda printables for a picnic in the park, I will get pics to you to show you how much everyone loves them!
So colourful ! And so cute ! *-*
http://www.theburbblog.com/Default.aspx?tabid=55&EntryID=335
I have some at my blog too if you want to check it out sometimes ;)
http://littlebitsandblogs.blogspot.com/2009/09/ice-cream-diy-style.html
I added you to my blog roll!
XOXO
Sari
S-
Recently discovered your blog and subscribed immediately. Great work!
www.eatliveshop.com
thanks
~mary
The Simplifiers Event Planning
Austin, TX
I'll be sure to feature these in my blog.
Keep it up!
www.thelemondroptree.blogspot.com
I'd love to feature this project on our new blog, Pairs and Paris, but only with your permission.
Contact us for verificiation.
Thanks!
Just wondering where you found the bottles you used? I've searched and haven't been able to find those. I really like the twist on cap kind but all I've been able to find is the cork. Would you mind sharing?
Thanks!