A Cup of Tea for Your Art Pinworthies

Hello everyone, it's Jennie back here again to share the Creative Guide's Pinworthy choices for last month's challenge A Cup of Tea for Your Art. As is always the case there were so many wonderful entries and we had a very difficult job to choose just three! Thank you all so much for taking the time to create and enter the challenge - it is very much appreciated by us all.

So ...... drum roll please .... here we go with our three Pinworthy Mentions.

#10 Lynn (Experiments in Paper)

Lynn created an exquisite thoughtful book from tea stained papers full of little quotes to meditate on whilst drinking a cup of tea. Wonderfully creative!

#1 Esther (Shoregirl's Creations)

Esther created a stunningly colourful and textured card stamping postmarks onto tea dyed watercolour paper. We loved how you combined the tea dyed paper with those gorgeous bright colours and textures.

#15 Elle (Empire of the Cat)

Elle created a beautiful tea dyed mixed media background which she made into three cards. We loved your use of Twinings packaging to complete the card.

I will be sending you your Pinworthy badge to display on your blogs shortly and we will be pinning your fabulous entries to the A Vintage Journey Pinworthies board on Pinterest.

There is still plenty of time to enter our current challenge which is BOX IT UP and you can find all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from the Creative Guides.

As always thank you for joining us in our challenge and we look forward to seeing what you create this month!

Jennie x

A Cup of Tea for Your Art : Tutorial

Hello to you all and welcome to our monthly tutorial post. Jennie (Live the Dream) with you this month as the host for the challenge "A Cup of Tea" sharing with you some of the ways I used tea dyed elements in my journal. I used Eileen Hull's wrap around journal die to create the cover and her Passport die to create the inside booklets.

This is quite a long post so you might need to pour yourself a cuppa !!!

It is quite a daunting task to fill even the smallest of journals but I like to make a pile of embellishments which I can then use quite quickly to decorate my pages. For this journal I put aside a couple of days and cleared my desk both to tea dye elements and also to make lots of envelopes and ephemera ........

I quite literally poured myself a mug of tea from the left overs in the pot after tea one evening. Even in a small mug it is possible to dye quite a bit of lace, ribbon, pieces of wood, little flowers ......

You can get different levels of colour by using different types of textile. For example cotton lace takes the tea far more than an acylic based one. The lace and ribbon on the right hand side of the photograph was removed after one hour, while those on the left were left in the cup overnight.

Dyeing paper requires a bit more organisation and access to the kitchen. I make up a watery solution in a large washing up bowl and immerse ordinary copy paper into the water, shake it a little and hang it on the clothes airer. Do put an old shower curtain or something similar on the floor or the drips will stain the floor! Once they have hung for about 20 minutes I collect 4/5 pieces together and lay them on top of each other and put them in the oven (140 degrees) for about 10 minutes which really "crisps" them up!

By this time I had a lovely pile of dyed papers and textiles to work with.

I folded an A4 page of dyed paper into four and used a few of my favourite tag dies to cut as many shapes as possible.

I then stamped these with some favourite stamps. The child in me loves little piles of labels to work with!

I also used some of my ticket and label stamps to create some mats. I have added a little Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges to make them look more complete.

Next I made some small packets from the tea dyed paper using the Tim Holtz mini packet die and then stamped and decorated them with various tags, stamps and ribbons. Creating in this way - focusing on a single element - means I can have a lot of creative fun and even if they are not going to all be used for this project they will be used for another.

I had some vellum lying on the desk so  added some elements on top and behind to create a little collage which then got stiched on the machine rather than glued.

This is a good opportunity to go through the bits box to find elements stamped for other projects and not used. Add in a couple of favourite dolls ........

Finally I cut my pages for the journal using Eileen's Passport die (they fit perfectly into the Wrap Around Journal).

For the front of each individual booklet I created a large vintage layered pocket for some journalling.

I started with a glassine pocket (stamp collectors use these and are easy to purchase on Ebay) and added a piece of card for journalling. I started decorating the front by adding some old text paper ......

..... next I added a  tea dyed doily and some white muslin ......

..... followed by a vintage photograph and then ribbon was tied around the whole envelope

..... finally I used one of my stamped labels and pearl button.

As I created I placed the finished items in a little box all ready for me to use. As a child I loved collecting things and having them in boxes ..... nothing changes!

I was then able to sit down and decide what I wanted to stick into each of the individual booklets and to set aside elements for the front cover.

I made a little pocket for the cover which I then stitched onto some vellum which was then stitched on to another label, a doily and some lace. It is a little fragile for a cover but the stitching will help to hold it all together over time. I used lashings of lace and ribbon to hide the elastic holding in the booklets, however I had dyed that in tea as well to tone it down a bit.

Hopefully you are still with me ! I will finish up with a few photographs of the inside pages so you can see how I used all those wonderful tickets, labels and pockets.

I hope this tutorial and a peek into the way I make up a journal will inspire you to give it a go. There is still plenty of time to join in our Cup of Tea challenge and you can get all the details HERE along with some fabulous inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides.

As always thank you for joining me and have a wonderful crafty weekend.

Jennie x

A Cup of Tea for your Art : August Challenge

Hello you all! 

Jennie (Live the Dream) here with you this month as your host and welcoming you to our new challenge. What better things in life are there than to settle down to some crafting with our favourite beverage. But what if we were to use them in our artwork (and I am not talking about wine here!). This month I am challenging you to

Pour yourself an extra cup of tea (or coffee) 

and use it in your project

In your cup you could dye lace, ribbon, wood, paper and flowers, or use it to create splashes or cup rings on your project. And don't just limit yourself to "ordinary tea" - there's green tea, yellow tea, black tea, herbal teas and fruit teas - whatever you've got in your cup!

Just remember to ensure that you create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

Our fabulous Creative Guides have created some wonderful projects to inspire and delight you. Just click on the links to be taken to their individual blog pages for all the details.

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Jennie

I had a massive tea dying session and had a great time creating lots of little envelopes and collages for this vintage journal using Eileen Hull's Wrap Around Die. As your host I will be back later in the month with a project tutorial but in the meantime I have a couple of sneak peeks on my blog.

Jo

Inspired by Jennie’s fabulous challenge and some wording on a sign at a local teashop, I had fun using a cup of Hot Cinnamon Spice tea for my art journaling this month. I applied the tea using both the teabag and the teacup to create a tea-stained background. To find out more please pop over to my blog, Let’s Art Journal, to see how it all came together.

Astrid

I loved the theme of Jennie's challenge and had great fun creating a little folder for a pen friend out of two tea dyed envelopes. The pockets will be filled with little tags and ephemera, all created with the help of tea and tea dyed papers. To see how it all came together, please come by my blog.

Julia

I made a card for Jennie's delightful Cup of Tea Challenge -  taking it quite literally with my tea themed stamps.  I brushed brewed Kenyan tea over watercolor paper for my background and added a vintage lace 'table cloth' under my teapot!  You'll find more details on my blog post here.  I hope you'll stop by for tea!

Sara Emily

I was inspired by Jennie's wonderful challenge theme and a box of Harvest Spice tea in my pantry to make a card for my brother and sister in law. Not only do I have that lovely tea stain on my papers and bow, but my card smells nice, too! If you would like to see the details of my card, I welcome you to stop by my blog.

Barbara

I interpreted the fabulous Jennie's Challenge A Cup Of Tea, with a summer theme! I had much fun creating a canvas, Tea on the beach, using Tim Holtz's die Teatime in a different way! I chose a color palette inspired by the sand and the ocean! Paper Dolls are perfect to fill my Cup of Tea, hope you like this project! You can find the tutorial on my blog!

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How could you not be inspired by such wonderful projects!

We really hope that you will join us in this challenge.  The challenge begins today and remains open for entries until the 5th September. So plenty of time to get that kettle on and start creating!

Jennie x

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