Tea for Two

A couple summers ago my good friend HB (Carol) sent me this adorable vintage strawberry teapot. Jordan and I had been having little tea parties out on the porch, using a bunch of other strawberry themed goodies and HB thought this would make the perfect addition. I adore this tea pot and I think of HB every time I see it. Well, as you know by now Papertrey is introducing a cute new set this month called Tea for Two, designed by Nichole. I immediately wanted to create something for a strawberry themed tea party. So I got out my tea pot, some vintage rick rack, some fabrics I purchased to make a table runner or something cute...and I found these three pages below from my Inspiration File. Zoom in to see the photos, I particularly love the red and white vintage fabrics in that cute table scape.

I went to work right away, starting with some home made patterned paper. I used Guidelines and Guidelines 2 to make some vintage looking patterns, using inks in Pure Poppy, True Black, Aqua Mist, Ripe Avocado, and Spring Moss. These stamp sets remind me of Frank Lloyd Wright patterns (Arts and Crafts style architect). Zoom in to get a good look at the colors.

Here's my finished cards...perfect little invitations for a couple of girl friends. I used my original Tent Topper card layouts for these, putting the teapots front and center.

Here's a close up of the tea pots. I first outlined the inside edges of the teapot image with a tan Copic marker (E31), then blended it with a Colorless Blender(0). The red I used for the details is a Copic red (R29). The teapots are accented with the small strawberries from Green Thumb. Tiny vintage rick rack from my stash is along the bottom of the teapots. I cut and embossed the teapot images with square Spellbinder's Nestabilities and matted the images with a Pure Poppy square Spellbinder's Nestie.

For the bottom of the cards, I used a fun sentiment from Tea for Two, stamped onto a strip of cardstock. I embellished the strip with a Vintage Button (guess the new color), tied with black twine. Vintage yellow and red rick rack from my stash finishes off the sentiment piece.

As a little party favor for my tea party, I made some homemade tea bags using my mom's Orange Spiced Tea recipe. I spooned some into tiny zip lock bags (available at craft stores)...

...and then inserted the bagged tea into Small Glassine Sacks. I punched a scalloped square, then stamped on the *tea for two* sentiment from Tea for Two, and the cute little tea cup from Everyday Expressions(PTI's anniversary set). I finished off the little squares with some tiny red rick rack and then messy stitched the tag right onto the glassine sack.

And here's all my goodies together. Now who could I invite over for a little tea party??

Be sure to check Nichole's BLOG to see more of Tea for Two. I know many of you are already excited...the entire set is so darling and as usual Nichole has added in the best sentiments. I can't wait to see more creations with this set. I know they will be tea-riffic.