Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Secret Garden Tea Party

Hello Delight Friends and Family,   
Just a warning, this is a long post with lots of pictures featuring the Tea Party I hosted for my mom's 75th birthday.  Hope this gives you some fun ideas or at least inspires you to have a tea party.  It was a lot of fun.

 
A "before" the tea party, picture.



This is the little girls table!  
 I designed the simple placemats for the little girls to give them something to color. They are 11x17 white card stock.  I used Microsoft Publisher and found the teapot clipart on that site but I believe the lace-y edges are from digital images I had (sorry don't remember from where).  All of the napkins used were homemade.  The fabric came from JoAnn's  and were originally from the tea party we had at the church about 3 years ago.  Ironically, my mom had forgotten that she was the one who had stitched all the edges of the napkins for me!  The picture doesn't show the chairs but I took two pieces of  tulle and tied a bow on the back of each of their chairs.

 I had purchased Monster Inc themed crayons (JoAnn's) and recovered them with the Graphic 45 Secret Garden paper and then tied the group with tulle and added a matching punched butterfly.


  The garden bunny is from an old set of three bunnies from Home Interiors that I've had for ages.  The vase is a set also from Home Interiors (BH&G line) that are made for place setting cards.  I used the quote cards from the G45 paper that are from the book "The Secret Garden"


 I found this pretty picture online as I was browsing Pinterest and thought that it would be perfect for the party.  I used Microsoft Publisher to design the 11x17 flyer and added the wording in Scriptina font.  I've printed it on white card stock and the background color is a light lavender.  I also designed a food and tea menu using the matching colors and fonts.


 This was a large piece of card board that I used to make a backdrop of a garden wall, with flowers and secret door to go along with the theme.  Addy (age 3 1/2) helped me with the flowers.  She stamped a few and then I had her do some thumbprint flowers.  I used stamps (Dylusions How does your garden grow and Further Around the Edge), stencils (Plaid brand) and acrylic paints (Making Memories, Ranger Distress Paints, Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Paints) and a couple of Prismacolor pencils.

  The tulle I purchased from JoAnn Fabrics (it was narrow, on a roll for under $3. I think there was approx. 20 yards per roll), I used three different colors throughout the room: green, pink, lilac.  I tied knots on the long piece that was used for the table centerpieces.  It was a simple way to add color and not take up too much space.

 I made favors for each guest from the Graphic 45 paper. It's a tea bag holder.  The band that holds it closed had a layered paper flower (Tattered Flower Die and the mini Tattered flower - Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations & Movers and Shapers; Leaf Die: Taylored Expressions.  The center part of the flower was a scallop circle that I cut out in a spiral and then rolled to make the flower. I added a key to each one to keep with the theme and matched the paper perfectly!

Inside shows the tea bag.  Each was a little different, there were no two alike.  I wish I had taken a picture of my favorites!

Onto the food... pictures only no recipes.  You can find many of the recipes on my Pinterest board Tea Party Food and Decor.
Yes, I was one cookin' fool for two days.  Yummy stuffed strawberries, cucumber sandwiches, croissants,  mini cream cheese bites, kiwi and cataloupe and lots of desserts. 


Mini cupcakes - decorated with homemade fondant, Cream wafer cookies (love this recipe - not on Pinterest so I thought I should mention that).

The top two layers are Petit Fours from Costco that my sister order for the party.  They were DELISH!!!!  A little pricey but definitely pretty and melt in your mouth good!  The bite sized cinnamon cheesecakes were a big hit!  
I used a sunflower cookie cutter to make the shaped sandwiches (egg salad).  I took a long slender loaf of french bread cut it into bite sizes and these were so easy and very good, I used a harvest flavored cream cheese spread then added a thinly sliced English cucumber and a little piece of fresh dill.  Easy peasy and so yummy!  I also served a turkey, cheese with veggies croissant (a tea party favorite!)


The "big" little girls taking a little time to color. (left to right) Mia, Addy & Riley
Tucker Lynn the little fashionista!


After tea... Do you know how hard it is to get 4 little girls to stand still, especially after filling up with petit fours, cream wafers and cupcakes??  I gave up after this picture (which this was probably the 12th take) so I do not have a picture of them with their great grandma, affectionately called GeeGee, which was going to be the next photo :-(  I should have taken more "before" pictures!
Since this was a tea party, I'd be remiss to not share the teas I served!
Here's the list:  White Peony, Oolong, Lady Grey, Jerusalem Mint with Pomegranite, Vanilla Blackberry Sage, Green Tea, Lemon Ginger, Honeybush and Chai Tea Latte.

All in all it was a wonderful time with the "girls" and we were able that evening to share with family and friends a surprise dinner party for my mom.  And she was indeed surprised!!  

Thanks for visiting and sticking with this very long post!  
Hey, it's good to be back but I think it's going to be short-lived because I'm heading to Oregon in a couple of days with a friend to a Living Proof Event which features one of my favorites, Beth Moore!  When I get back from that we will be having company for a week.  Our good friend Darrell (more family than friend) is coming for a week and preaching at our church for three nights but staying for about a week. Boy, who can I get to clean my house?!! Maybe I can coax my youngest to give me a helping hand!! Makes it difficult to be "crafty" knowing I need to prepare for a guest, so I hope by the second week in May perhaps then I'll be able to get back into my craft room!
Have a great week!!

Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise.  Ephesians 6:2


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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Tea Party coming up...

Hey Delightful friends and family

My mom is celebrating her 75th birthday this Friday and we are celebrating with all the daughters, granddaughters and great grandaughters, plus daughter-in laws,  a week from Saturday with a fun Tea Party which I'm hosting.  So I'll be missing from here due to all the prep I'll be doing.  I'll be excited to share some of the fun projects afterwards, unless for some reason there is a window of opportunity to get it posted but don't count on it!  I've got to get this house spotless as well.  But I wanted to share that  I'm using the Secret Garden (Graphic 45) collection as my inspiration and theme. Can't wait to share in a week or so!  Keep me in prayer!

God bless!  See you soon....

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

With All Diligence - My Faith Art Journal - WAW#74

Hello Delightful friends and family,
It's already Thursday, can you tell me how that happened?! Hope you are having a wonderful week . I'm enjoying this new faith art adventure, here are my latest pages, just finished (well I think they are done, you never know I may revisit them and add more, time will tell!)  



My last art journal post I  shared about the verses in 2 Peter chapter one that I want to use for my inspiration in this journal. Those verses were the beginning of the "stepping out of my comfort zone" and the beginning of a woman's Bible study (that was just about 15 years ago!). 


 I had been teaching the children for years but never had taught in the women's ministry at our church.  But you know (or maybe you don't, I don't want to assume) when the Lord begins to speak to your heart about something that He desires you to do, He goes to great lengths to get your attention!  For me it was this small voice "suggesting" that I start a morning Bible study for the ladies at our church. Being the great woman of faith I jumped at the chance to be obedient (NOT)!!!! Sadly, I questioned, "Lord is this just me?  Is it because my husband is the pastor that I have to do this??"  I reasoned that the other pastor's wives never did this... surely this is just my own thoughts, right Lord?  I teach the children, I'm not scholarly, I'm not a good speaker, I hated speech class!  You've got to be kidding, right? 


Well, this went on for a week or so but it just wouldn't go away.  So, I prayed, Lord I believe this is You and I want to please You and be obedient, but if this is just me and my own thoughts, I just don't want to do it if that is the case.  Well, the Lord did answer that prayer by waking me up in the middle of the night and spoke to my heart and made it clear to me that I was to begin a study for the ladies and it was to begin in 2 Peter. Period. And that He would equip me to do it. Period.  And I can honestly say that He has done exactly that  and He has been so patient with me!  He is faithful and it is so true that when He guides us, He will provide for us, whatever the need may be.  
And so that gives you (if you made it this far) a little insight into my faith art journal and why these verses in 2 Peter are so personal to me.

I'm excited to share with you that my friend Abby (Little Birdie Blessings) has shared on her blog part of an outline of one of my Bible studies.  I had originally shared this with the group of ladies from the local Vital Network (Stonecroft Ministries) in February of this year.  The Lord is still taking me out of my comfort zone, from the four walls of my church and into the community to share His Word.  Thank you, Abby and to God be all the glory! 

Thanks so much for visiting!

I'm also entering this into Word Art Wednesday # 74

Some of the ingredients used: Stamp - Unity Stamp Co. (She was a Daughter); Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart); Chevron and Leaf Die (Taylored Expressions); Dylusions Spray Ink and stencil (Ranger); assortment of acrylic paints and Prismacolor Pencils; Zig Pen Writer, black; Faber-Castell crayons

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  James 1:17

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Monday, April 1, 2013

Not Old, Vintage! Happy Birthday Kerry Bear! STB#11

Hello Delightful friends and family!

Here is a card I made for my sweetie pie's birthday.  His B-I-G day is Tuesday and I wish I could say we have B-I-G plans but we don't.  We both have to work and in the evening we have our weekly prayer meeting and then he studies for Thursday night Bible Study.  So... we will wait until Friday to go out to dinner and maybe catch a movie.  In the meantime, I'm entering this in the Seize the Birthday challenge #11. I took some liberties with the sketch but it's all in fun anyway!  I think it's great to have extra birthday cards on hand!! 




Here's my birthday boy, Kerry with our granddaughter Tucker Lynn.


Ingredients:  Designer Paper - DCWV The Natural Pack (8x8); Paper Accents premade card base in white.  Stamp: Wood mount Hampton Arts - 7 Gypsies "collections from the journey"; Sizzix Tim Holtz Mover and Shaper Dies (Mini Jalopy); Embossing Folder (brick); Dimensional Pearls (Adirondack, Terra Cotta) Dies: Taylored Expressions Chevron border, Spellbinders Nestabilities Hexagons; Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Moonlit white.

Thanks for looking!  

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Cor 8:9

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