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