The "How-To" Of My Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Tea Party

Hi, guys! Hope all is well.  I promised that I would pop back with the details and supplies that I used on my tea party goodies for the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Challenge.  If you didn't see the pictures from the tea party they can be found here.

When planning my florals for the napkin rings and place cards, I decided I would use my new Distress Paints to color them.  I used Tim Holtz Glassine Papers and Tim Holtz Kraft Resist papers.

Place Cards:

Napkin Rings:

I used the same flowers as the place cards, but decorated them all a bit different.  Some I used gears in the center, others buttons, etc.  The rings were made by cutting paper towel rolls.  I then wrapped them with tissue tape and sealed the rings with Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium.  After drying, I sprayed them green with Dylusions Spray, then hot glued the flowers to the ring.

Stenciled Cookies

I love to stencil cakes and cookies.  Normally, I use my supply of plastic cake stencils.  That is what gave me the idea to make my own with kitchen parchment.

I ran a piece of kitchen parchment with the Tattered Floral die through my Vagabond machine.  That became the stencil.

Tip: Make sure you pull the parchment straight up as sugar will pool on it and it could fall onto your cookie, messing up the clean design.

I am looking forward to using Tim's Gingerbread die at Christmastime to decorate my gingerbread. So many options with my die collection!

Tea Sandwiches

These were a hit, and fun to do.  They are time consuming, but I will give you a few pointers to make it easier.

Using kitchen parchment again, I cut out the large flower from the die.

Tips:
1.  Use firm bread.  Rye worked great!
2.  Keep bread cold.  If it gets warm it will be hard to cut.
3.  You can also make a stencil out of firm cardboard (use food safe!) and it won't curl up.
4.  Use toothpicks to hold the stencil to the bread.   My husband used a paring knife to trim; I used my
     kitchen scissors (I am used to fussy cutting!)

After the bread is cut, just make sandwiches as usual.  Ours were tuna salad.  I then topped each with an olive.  Use the excess bread for bread crumbs, or to feed the birds (which is what we did).

I am looking forward to doing this again with brownies and think the gingerbread man made with wheat bread would make adorable holiday sandwiches.

Fascinator:

I used a hard headband that was sturdy to start with.  I attached some fun branches left over from my Valentine's Day bouquet (too cute to discard)!  I then twisted 3 colors of tulle together and hot glued it over the headband.  I then went to town attaching all the fun flowers I had made using the Tattered Floral die.  I used metal, felt, various papers, buttons, bottle caps, etc. to decorate.  I added leaves that I cut from the Tattered Leaf die.  Too fun!

I hope I have answered some of your questions, and inspired you to take out your dies and use them in fun ways.  I am grateful to Tim for this challenge, as it spurred me to use my die a lot, and I had a blast!

Have a great day!  Until next time!

Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Tea Party

Hi, guys!  Hope all is well!  Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!  Today I am going to share with you how I spent my St. Paddy's Day!   I held a tea party!  Not just any tea party, but a Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Tea Party! What is that?  Well, Tim Holtz is having a challenge called the Tattered Floral Challenge where you create something using his Tattered Floral Die.  Now, if you read my blog often, you will know that I love Tim's products and so of course I have the die.  I am also a big fan of tea, and tea parties as well.  You may recall a few tea parties I have held where we have our tea and stamped, too.  So I decided to hold a tea party and invited my sisters and nieces and the hubby as well.

I have been working on making some fun decorating pieces for the party this week.  I made invitations, napkin rings, and place cards.

What is a tea party without some yummy treats?  I decided to make my own stencils out of kitchen parchment paper using the Tattered Floral die and I decorated some cookies using it.  I used confectioners sugar and pretty pink sprinkles on them. (You could use cocoa powder or even cinnamon sugar if you prefer!)

For a tea party, you need tea sandwiches, right?  So I made another template of the large flower from the Tattered Floral Die using kitchen parchment paper.  Then, my husband and I cut our bread into these fun flower shapes! (Olives used for the flower center!)

Table shot before the party started!

After eating, and having plenty of delicious tea and laughter, we headed to the craft area to use the Tattered Floral Die to make hair decorations.  I decided to make a fascinator as my hat! I made a bunch of flowers using the die during the week.  Each one was different, and I used various materials.  I took out my trusty hot glue gun and went to town!

I don't think Princess Beatrice has anything on me!  It was such a hoot to make and now I have it in a vase in my studio to take out the next time the gang comes for tea!

As a nod to St. Paddy's Day, I played music by Eileen Ivers who is an amazing Celtic Fiddler.  The energy and fun and lively spirit well went with our fun day!

I can't tell you how much fun I had creating and spending the time with my family.  I hope you will consider joining in the fun of the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Challenge!

I will be back this week sharing the "how-to's" to the various things I made as well as some pointers that may help you as well as a list of supplies.  I love that the napkin ring holders and place cards were made in a way that they can be used over again for the next party (looks like it will be for Mother's Day, and even my mom will get in the fun!).

Enjoy your night!!