WhiMSy love: Tea Party in a Box: Crafting with Plaid & Martha Stewart

I received a generous box of Martha Stewart crafty goodies from Plaid about a month ago. My mission: to create a Mother's Day gift inspired by all things paint & stencil. There was SO MUCH IN THE BOX, that I sort of froze. My brain scrambled a bit. But then, for whatever reason, the idea for this tea suitcase popped into my head.

Not only can this suitcase hold all the tea party supplies, but you can toss a blanket on the ground, picnic-style, & the suitcase becomes a nice little table for tea.

Here are the 5 projects I created as part of this "Tea Party in a Box".

(And I basically went doily crazy.)

1. Painted suitcase

SUPPLIES: gold metallic multi-surface acrylic paint, eyelet lace stencil set, a foam pouncer top, & a suitcase.

I LOVE vintage suitcases, & happened to have this one in my stash. But you can find them at thrift stores & garage sales. I did wipe the suitcase down with a wet rag before beginning the painting, but I like the dated/dirty/tattered look, so any stains were fine by me.

This project, which I was at first intimidated by, was actually easy! This particular stencil comes with two parts: a corner & a straight piece. You just repeat the designs. I mostly eyeballed, but there is a small guide to help you line up the pieces as you go along. (And I see a tiny flower spot I missed in the picture! It's like "Where's Waldo"...) And I LOOOOVE the pouncer tops. They fit right onto your bottle of acrylic paint!

#2: Oversized felt doily coasters

SUPPLIES: Felt, eyelet lace stencil set, stencil brush, scissors, stencil tape, & multi-surface acrylic paint.

I made two sets of coasters in different colors. I couldn't decide which I liked better, & ended up using them both. The stencil set comes with smaller doilies, which look like a "normal" coaster size. But I used the larger doily stencil & created oversized coasters, which were about 8 inches in diameter.

All you do is cut out a circle from your felt a bit bigger than the stencil. I found a bowl that was the perfect size & cut out my circles.

Place the stencil on top of the circular piece of felt. It helped me to center it by holding it up to the light. I could see through the stencil & get good placement.

I used some stencil tape to mask off any areas near the edge of my doily that were a bit to close for the wild stenciling that was about to go down. The tape also helped to hold my stencil to the table. Use your stencil brush to pick up a bit of paint, dab off the excess, & then get to dabbing. I'm not gonna lie: My right arm is so buff right now.

#3: Tea pouches

SUPPLIES: felt, button, sewing machine, eyelet lace stencil set, italic flourish stencil set, multi-surface satin acrylic paint, stencil brush, scissors, needle, thread.

Each of the tea pouches matches one set of the oversized coasters.

For the larger pouch, cut out a piece of felt that is 11 1/2" long x 4 1/2" wide.

Fold up the bottom 4", & sew a straight stitch on each side, from the bottom to where the pocket opens.

Not pictured: I used one of the smaller doily stencils to paint on the front side, which you can't see in this picture. I used the raspberry ice multi-surface satin acrylic paint. THEN, measure where you want your button. Sew a button on the bottom pocket. Measure again to get the proper placement for the button hole. Simply snip a slit with the scissors. .

For the small tea pouch, fold a long strip of felt in half & sew up both sides. (Sorry, I didn't measure. It really depends on the size of your tea bags. Not all tea bags are created equal. But it's super simple to make.) I used the letter "t" from the italic flourish stencil set & stippled it on with light blue multi-surface satin acrylic paint.

#4: Cupcake picks

SUPPLIES: 2-inch hole punch, cardstock, eyelet lace stencil set, stencil brush, metallic yellow gold multi-surface acrylic paint, raspberry ice multi-surface satin acrylic paint, toothpicks, hot glue.

Punch out 2" circles from cardstock. Position a portion of the doily stencil over one edge of the circle &, using the gold paint, stencil lightly. Once that's dry, position part of the butterfly on the circle, overlapping the doily. Stencil the butterfly with the raspberry ice color. I discovered that using a bit more paint was OK when stippling onto the felt. But when stippling onto paper, don't use so much paint. You'll get more crisp lines this way.

Once dry, hot glue toothpicks to the very bottom backside of the circles.

#5: Doily/book page bunting

SUPPLIES: pages from an old book, eyelet lace stencil set, 3 different colors of paint, foam pouncer tops, twine, glue stick.

The 3 doilies are conveniently placed on this stencil sheet, so all you do is position it all different ways on top of each book page. Flip it this way, turn it that way, etc., so that you get a different look on each page.

I used raspberry ice (satin), yellow gold (metallic), gold (metallic), & eclipse (pearl). Ok, so that's 4 colors. Toward the end of pouncing, I decided I liked the gold better for this project.

When the paint is dry, turn the pages over & fold down the top flap about 1". Slide the twine under the flap & use a glue stick to seal it. You could also punch a hole in the two top corners & feed the twine through that way.

To complete the party, I gathered mismatched teacups & saucers, miniature dishes to hold cupcakes & treats, a teapot, random dishes to use for creamer & sugar, vintage spoons tied off with a bit of trim (they actually had holes drilled near the top, from a previous project), mismatched vintage hankies to use as napkins, & tablecloths or quilts to use as picnic blankets.