Tea's Garden Party

Another wonderfully themed journal, this time from Circle of Friends member Sandy P. She has asked each of us to create a garden tea party. The only requirements are that tea be in cups and that it be held in a garden.

Of course I couldn't go with a traditional Garden Tea Party so I decided to do a play on words. This is my "Tea's Garden Party".

The intro page, right, has an invitation to a wonderful party. I prepped all the pages with acrylic paint that I mixed myself. Next I stamped a swirl stamp in a slightly different shade. Glittering a few of the wisps in two different shades and the dark brown you see is Earl Grey tea, yep, not only is my piece fun to look at it smells scrumptious!

Close up of the invitation.

I made a mistake when I was stamping the letters and instead of tossing out the card I took advantage of it. I Stamp the offending letters correctly on a coordinating sheet of paper and then glued them on. I made a few extra letters and glued them over fine letters to make it look less like it was not a mistake.


The flowers were purchased from Michael's. I selected ones that reminded me of the various shades that tea comes in. Because they are part of a larger flower when I detached them there was a hole in the center. To hide this I added a dab of Tim Holtz gold sticklers.

The gold embellishment next to the invitation was originally silver. I sanded it a little and painted it gold so that it would go with my cover. To me it looks like a skeleton leaf.

Here is Tea's Garden Party. The inside is painted the same green but here I went over it with a glossy sealant. The lovely paper is from a Paula's Kit Club.

This whole project started with my desire to make Tea paper dolls. These suckers were tricky. First I started by stamping the tea cups (Stampington & Co.) and scanning them into the computer. I had to make a few adjustment to the images, using Photo Shop. Next I scanned in some doll faces which had to be stretched and then a few sections colored in. Once the faces were done I concentrated on getting them dressed. The dresses I scanned in and printed out on transparency. Behind the dress transparency I glued various decorative papers. This doll I used two on, one for the collar and the other for the remainder of the dress. The hands and feet I cut from a dress form stamp from Paula's Kit Club. The dresses and doll faces are also from Paula's Kit Club.

Each doll stands on ground made of Tea...so yes there is Earl grey on this page also.

What would a party be without a table. But of course a garden where Tea lives would have a table that defies gravity. The legs are made from wooden sticks died with walnut ink. The table cloth is two layers, the bottom a cotton brown the top lace. The cake and gift stamps are from Close to my Heart.

Some of the other details that are hard to see in the overall image are the latex like balloons, also from Close to My Heart. I stamped them and then did multiple layers of clear embossing powder to make them look more like actual balloons.

The chipboard letters I added a crackle medium to.

Traditionally all the members of the Circle of Friends sign their work. When I was all done I realized that I had not really left a place for my logo. So Instead a stamped a tea bag (Stampington & Co.) and on one side stamped my logo and the other put my contact information. The only picture you can see this in is the spread of the inside pages above.

On the back I stamped a little bit about my page (an explanation...sort of) I wanted it to sound like a newspaper announcement because after all Earl Grey is a big wig in the land of tea.

The background paper is aged using various shades of Tim Holtz distressing inks. I affixed it using a high gloss medium, the photographs really brought out where I stopped the glue but it is not that obvious in real life. To finish off the back page I added a bit more Earl Grey and the flowers.

I really really like this piece. Mainly because it has so many different elements. It took me forever and came together beautifully IMO.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy!