Jessica Mullen wrote: “I saw your beautiful photos from the tea party and I have a quick question. I was wondering how you made the tea bags for the make your own tea take home favors. I would love to do this for a baby shower I am throwing in 2 weeks. Any other ideas to make a baby shower more special using the tea theme? I love your ideas!!”

Thanks, Jessica! Here’s how to make handsewn fabric teabags for loose tea. Heather came up with this idea for our Upper Crust Social Club Ladies’ Late-Night Tea Party and I liked it so much that I made a gold variation for my mom as a gift. So we’ve provided two free templates below, or you can easily make your own custom labels.

You’re welcome to use these instructions and templates for free for your own personal use. Anyone using the template simply post a comment below or email me to track its usage.

Supplies for handsewn fabric teabags:

• Heather’s free teabag template and matching tea tents for display (PDFs – ready to print as is) or Kathy’s free teabag template (Adobe Illustrator format, just download a trial version of Illustrator and change the names to customize) …or, create your own tags using Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft PowerPoint
• Sheer fabric (we used remnants from my living room curtains that I made years ago that had a nubby texture)
• White thread (or gold thread)
• Thick black craft thread (or gold thread)
• Pins (optional)
• White Elmer’s glue
• Thick white paper
• Hand sewing needle
• Sewing machine (unless you want to sew the whole thing by hand)
• Rotary fabric rotary cutter, clear fabric ruler and self-healing mat (you can substitute good scissors but these tools are invaluable for ensuring straight cuts time after time)

Supplies for packaging:

• White paper bags
• Clear plastic food bags
• Pretty stickers OR 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets of sticker paper from an office supply store to make your own custom stickers on the computer like we did

First, cut your sheer fabric into 3″ x 2.5″ rectangles using your rotary fabric rotary cutter, clear fabric ruler and self-healing mat. Pin the rectangles together in pairs.

Machine sew around three sides of the teabag using white thread, leaving about 1/4 inch on the sides. I love the raw edges of the teabag, so embrace any fraying.

Thread your handsewing needle with thick, black thread, or use colored embroidery floss. Weave your needle in and out of the front side of the teabag and then around the back side of the teabag, leaving long extra thread pieces on both front and back. Be sure to avoid sewing the top shut. No need to tie any knots on this step.

Print and cut out your tea labels using one of the two free templates provided, or making your own in Adobe Illustrator or PowerPoint. Fold them in half and place a dot of Elmer’s glue on one end …a little goes a long way. Place the teabag string ends on the glue and close to seal.

Create a “loose tea bar” using clear cups and other assorted small bowls. Fill your teabag with loose teas (my favorites including Blood Orange Tea are from Adagio Teas …check them out. You can get free shipping with a $50 purchase).

For packaging

Buy clear food bags from uline.com. Seal using pretty stickers, or make your own custom stickers like we did by buying 8 1/2″ x 11″ white printer sticker sheets from an office supply store and creating your own label in Adobe Illustrator or Powerpoint.

Provide white bags and Chinese take-out boxes for people to carry their goodies home. Relax and unwind!

COPYRIGHT NOTE: You’re more than welcome to use this project and pattern for your own personal use. Please post a comment below or email me if you use this project so I can smile when I see that it’s being used. Craft and pass it on!

This is one of those craft projects that I just love. A little throwback, a little whimsical …and totally original.

The idea for Shrinky Dink rabbit’s foot napkin rings that double as keychain favors sprung from a creative volley between me and Heather Crosby. I was hell bent on wanting to use Shrinky Dinks for our ladies’ late night tea party. Heather had created a kick-ass invitation of a tea-stained coaster with a rabbit’s foot. I suggested shrinky rabbit’s feet for keychain favors. Heather loved it and quickly turned out an assortment of different colored feet graphics for me to make and bake.

And voila! A decorative and practical party detail that would be equally at home at a “good luck” wedding/engagement shower or goodbye party as it was at our Alice-inspired affair.

You’re welcome to use these instructions and templates for free for your own personal use. Anyone using the template simply post a comment below or email me to track its usage.

Supplies:

• Free template for Shrinky Dink Rabbit’s Foot Napkin Ring Keychain Favor (PDF)
• Shrinky film ink-jet sheets at Amazon.com or ShrinkyDinks.com
• Good scissors
• Keychain chain and connectors (local hardware store)
• Computer and inkjet printer (can’t use laser printers)
• Dremel tool (highly recommend) or hole punch (if you use the hole punch, do it before baking; the Dremel avoids weird hole shapes)
• Baking sheet
• Brown paper bag or kraft paper
• Stack of magazines
• Oven
• Hot pad
• White cloth napkins (optional)

This time rather than step-by-step photos, I decided to take my new Mac for a spin and make a little “how to” movie. Let me know what you think.

COPYRIGHT NOTE: You’re more than welcome to use this project and pattern for your own personal use. Please post a comment below or email me if you use the template so I can smile when I see that it’s being used.

My ever-so-creative friend and frequent partner-in-crime Heather Crosby came up with a festive idea that encapsulates the two things we like best — making things and spending time with friends — by creating the tongue-in-cheek Upper Crust Social Club.

The UCSC is all about hosting a series of varied themed soirees that I’ll feature here to hopefully jump-start your own gatherings. First up: An Alice-inspired night-time tea party for some of our favorite Chicago ladies that kicked off the UCSC concept in style.

Today’s tea party post features the overall decor, whimsical details and creative ways to set your tables and food display. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share more posts with free templates and step-by-step how-to instructions to make all of our tea party goodies: Shrinky Dink rabbit’s foot napkin holders that convert into keychain favors, super fancy tea sandwiches, handsewn tea bags for loose teas, magical “Drink Me”colored champagne bottles, edible flower ice cubes, homemade cake/sandwich stands, and more.

An all-white base for tablecloths, napkins, flower and candles ensured that the colors really popped from mismatched tea cups, teapots, rabbits feet, “Drink Me” bottles — and of course the yummy food and “leaded” and “unleaded” teas.

Each guest’s placesetting had a handmade Shrinky Dink rabbit’s foot napkin ring that converted into a keychain favor. I’ll post the free DIY instructions and templates soon.

On the menu was a variety of proper tasty tea sandwiches (taken in the candlelight so sorry the photo is so dark): Fancy Almond Butter & Blueberry Jam, Carrot Ginger, Chicken Curry, Traditional Cucumber, Egg Salad, Pear & Stilton and Smoked Salmon & Wasabi. We cut them into triangles, squares, long rectangles, hearts and circles and lit up the evening buffet with dozens of tealight candles.

Using children’s alphabet cookies, we spelled Alice-inspired phrases on serving plates including Eat Me, Pretty, Hearts, Rabbit, and Sassy.

We created cheap and chic makeshift homemade risers on the fly for the sandwiches by spontaneously combining Heather’s own collection of vintage tins with her delicate bone china plates (again, taken in the candlelight so sorry the photos are so dark).

Every hostess needs to save time, so we “outsourced” our desserts to my neighborhood Alliance Bakery including bite-sized fresh fruit tarts, key lime tart, iced chocolate cookies, and hazelnut and pistachio thumbprint cookies.

We pooled all our “leaded” and “unleaded” loose and bagged teas and all types of sweeteners…

…and made handmade tea bags for loose tea from fabric remnants from my living room curtains and Heather’s handmade tea labels with the UCSC logo on the front. Follow the free teabag instructions to make your own for favors or gifts.

“Magical” Drink Me bottles filled with champagne, sugar cubes and food coloring in recycled bottles provided adult breaks from the teas.

And the dazzling Alex Pruner hosted a super fun tea party game we made up based on her vintage feminist-slash-manners book crossed with a household favorite board game, Wise and Otherwise. The winner received this soy tea cup candle made by local Chicago crafter Marcie at Something Beautiful.

Like this nighttime tea party theme? Check out the free DIY templates for Shrinky Dink rabbit’s foot napkin holders that convert into keychain favors and lovely handsewn tea bags for loose teas …instructions for fancy tea sandwiches, “Drink Me” bottles of brightly colored champagne and edible fresh flower ice cubes to come soon. In the meantime, see more party photos at Inspired by Everything’s post and Flickr album.

Hostess Heather Crosby had a blast from the past throwing a high school themed engagement party for her brother Chad and bride-to-be Shayda who met back in their teens. Starting with a handwritten ‘Secret Passed Note’ engagement party invitation, Heather included these adorable high school inspired details throughout the party:

Prom Flowers. Heather used every vessel in the house, from retro Fiestaware Pitchers to clear glass votive holders, grouping like flowers into short bursts of color spread both inside and out. Bubbles added to the fun.

Guest Interactivity. Inside, Heather created a “hallway of lockers” using posterboard. Guests were encouraged to add items into Chad and Shayda’s individual lockers, turning Chad’s into a Shayda Shrine that also contained early 90′s favorites Drakkar Noir and Big League Chew. Guests also nominated each other for Senior Superlatives (Best Dressed, Most Intellectual, Class Clown, Most Athletic, Friendliest, and more).

High School Touches. Chad and Shayda’s senior yearbook entertained guests while Heather served high school favs including crispy tater tots and extra gooey macaroni & cheese on white rectangular compartment trays reminiscent of the lunch line.

Friendship Pins. Hearts melted when guests received friendship pins as party favors. Heather, Renee and I had so much fun making these throwback treats that it’s our new mission to bring pins back for Chicago Summer ’08. Get your beads and join us!

Leave it to Heather Crosby to come up with an invitation concept that I’ve never seen before.

Heather’s beloved brother Chad and his lovely bride-to-be Shayda met way back in high school. A chance meet up a decade later while Chad was home visiting family led to a cross-country romance and recent engagement. Big sis Heather is throwing a school-themed, backyard barbecue to help celebrate the sassy couple.

Supplies:

• Lined notebook filler paper
• Pack of colored markers or pens
• Color photo copier
• Envelopes
• Custom photo stamps from PhotoStamps.com (Your Picture on Real US Postage) – optional but recommended

Write your invitation using colored markers peppered with 80′s high school phrases and acronyms like T.T.L., P.P.S., K.I.T., Write Back, 4 Eva, Don’t Ever Change, and others. Be sure to cross out misspellings and use lots of exclamation points. Load your color photo copier with notebook paper and make your number of needed invites. Now follow these handy folding instructions to fold your invitations into secret passed note squares. Voila! Very Sam in Sixteen Candles.

In this electronic day and age, it’s so much more fun for guests to receive a tactile, throwback invite like this in the mail. I checked the box, “yes”!

I love the combination of turquoise and orange that Anne-Marie Rosser and Adam Whipple used for their intimate outdoor wedding reception on a Chicago terrace.

Anne-Marie started with turquoise tablecloths and crisp white linen napkins. Her long table centerpiece alternated orange orchid bunches in square glass containers, small succulents in rocks-filled square glass containers, and clusters of clean white pillar candles.

This look would be also be cute for wedding and baby showers. If you’re looking for candles you can get $10 off $50 or more at CandleBay.com. Enter coupon code CB1050 at checkout to get $10 off (they also offer $3.99 Soy Jar Candles).

AT&T delivered piles of telephone books to my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. Not needing ours but cringing at tossing the stack into the trash I decided to find some crafty uses for them. So I wrapped my sister Karin’s birthday gifts with birthday-themed yellow pages.

Supplies:

• Telephone book (preferably yellow pages)
• Tape
• Scissors
• Ribbonor bow for garnish

Flip through the phone book to find a suitable topic. For Karin’s birthday I chose ‘Bakery,’ ‘Balloons,’ ‘Gifts,’ ‘Flowers,’ and ‘Cake.’ Run one side of your scissors down the spine or tear out to remove the page. For smaller boxes like the jewelry box above you can just cut to size and wrap. Add a ribbon, bow or other garnish; I used a fuschia, sheer, shiny metallic ribbon that picked up the pink in the Sweet Cakes logo.

For larger boxes, tape pages together from the backside to create one large sheet, then wrap. For my sister’s larger box I used 12 pages.

I like this idea because it’s simple, whimsical and green for the reduce-reuse-recycle minded. Here are some occasions and suggested phone book themes to try:

Birthday = Balloons, Bakery, Cake, Candy, Liquor
Bachelorette/Bachelor Party = Bars, Liquor, Entertainment, Escorts, Limousine
Baby = Child, Schools, Diaper Service, Nannies, Furniture – Children’s, Clowns
New Home = Moving, Painting
Engagement or Wedding Shower = Bridal, Diamonds, Jewelry, Wedding, Banquet, Bakers, Caterers

Other fun topics for the right recipient: Travel, Aquariums, Body Piercings, Bowling, Costumes, Golf, Tattooing, Pawnbrokers. Let me know what you come up with!

Our wedding photographers, Kiri and Brett of PenCarlson Photography, hosted a bright and cheery open house on Sunday for their new Chicago photography studio.

Height is always good with buffets but I’ve never seen anything like these innovative ‘flowers enclosed in glass cylinder’ food risers. This detail would work particularly well for weddings or showers or even holiday buffets.

They also offered tasty individually-wrapped cupcakes as a take home favor. The tops of clear food bags were decorated with a diagonally-cut piece of satin ribbon with a monogrammed ‘P’ sticker hiding the stapled top. And setting the cupcakes on a thin cardboard square help ensure icing stays on the cakes rather than the bag.

We co-hosted a couple’s BBQ last July to celebrate the engagement of my friend Heather (H) and her fiance Noah (N). Our co-hostess Michelle Platts scored by bringing these festive romantic sugar cookies that she baked with her daughter Vivian. I think this is such a cute idea not only for engagement parties and couple’s showers but also for baby showers and birthday parties.

Roll it out using the Ateco 26-pc. Alphabet Cookie Cutter Set and Elise’s sugar cookie recipe .

Being a big tea drinker these favors from Rachel’s baby shower were a big hit with me. A box of Twinings tea was wrapped in fresh green tissue and plastic, tied with printed silk ribbons that say ‘a baby is brewing.’ I especially liked the tea strainer wrapped around the top. And if you aren’t feeling crafty enough to create your own stickers the MyOwnLabels.com website does a great job; I used them once for labels on homemade apple butter for holiday gifts.