Mar 8 2011
St. Pat’s Tea Party
Posted by: Kristen Swain · Edit
Good Morning Circlets! Kristen here with a fun party idea for St. Patrick’s Day. I was thinking and thinking about this post today, and thought, well, it’s not a huge day of celebration, but wouldn’t it be a great excuse to get some girlfriends, daughters or grandkids over for a little tea party? My card invite says “tea and blarney” well, looking up the definition of blarney, it means sweet-talk. And SWEETS I have for you!!
You don’t need to make a huge variety of items to make your ‘tea party’ special. I have an invitation, a placecard, a little gift pin or hair clip for your guests, a goodie bag for them to take home, and both lemony tea cookies, and chocolaty brownie bites. Set the table with a nice tablecloth and get out your tea cups, and the party is ON!!
I printed out my papers today using my Imagine Machine, with the Blossom Cartridge. There is lots of green papers, along with some pretty blues, yellows and pinks.
For this invitation, I used the Blossom papers, adding green and yellow printed cardstock to my 5×5 card. I added a block of white, and layered on the plaid block at the bottom. I cut my teacup from Smiley Cards, layering the cup on the bottom plate. I punched out a thin strip of the plaid using my EK Success scallop border punch, and added that to the bottom of my computer printed partial greeting ( century gothic font). Then I cut out the letters “tea&blarney’ from Base Camp, using my Gypsy, I was able to adjust the kern and then weld my letters together. Finally I cut out some little green clovers from Paper Doll Dress Up, added that with foam tape, and tied a button with twine to finish the card.
Wouldn’t you like to give your guests a little pin or hair clip to wear for your party? I used some wide green and white ribbon, basted one edge with thread and then pulled it to make a round. I stitched the edges to hold as well. You could use some fray stop on the cut edges of the ribbon as well. I then cut out two scalloped circles using Accent Essentials, and cut another clover from green and added that with foam tape to my pin. I added this little green flower button tied on with a bow of DMC floss, and used a glue square to adhere it. For the back of the pin, I used a hair spring clip. This way it can either be clipped to a shirt, or worn in the hair.
Make each guest feel special with their own place card. I folded over some of the Blossom printed cardstock, then added the strip of yellow ( after I printed the name using my computer- Freestyle script) I trimmed the edges off even, then I punched a piece of green printed cardstock ( scallop punch. I cut out a smaller teacup from the Smiley Cards Cart, and foam taped it to my card. I then added another little green clover- cut from Paper Doll Dress Up, and a button with lime DMC floss tied in a bow.
Next, wouldn’t you like to send a little sweet home with your loved ones? Grab a couple handfuls of Kisses, and put them in this PUNtastic treat bag. I created this bag first by cutting out a circle and a scalloped circle ( flower) using Accent Essentials. I layered them and adhered them to my brown paper lunch bag. Then I cut out a larger and slightly smaller clover- again using my Paper Doll Dress Up cart and Blossom printed papers. I found this great lip print on my Indie Art Cart and added that with the pink printed cardstock. Next, I used Base Camp, kerned my letters together closer using my Gypsy, then welded the letters before cutting. I adhered on the wording and added green pearls for the I dots. To finish, I added some kisses to my bag, then punched two holes after I folded the top down, and laced some raffia through tied into a bow. I added a glittery button tied with a bow to the center of the knot.
Now, onto the food part!! I laugh whenever I get out my Cake Machine, my family starts circling like vultures, hoping to get tidbits of whatever sweet I’m working on.
Today, I want to let you know, you can use melted chocolate and cut in your Cake Machine. I used my Mini Cake machine to create these , but you can also use your cake machine if you have that.
I used very inexpensive vanilla chocolate, in fact it’s called Vanilla Flavored Almond Bark, I bought it at Walmart for about $2.50 for 1 1/2 pounds. There tends to be a good bit of this left over when you’re finished. I chopped it up and put it in a container to use for topping ice cream. The colors are pretty and the kids love it.
Now, for these sweet little brownies. I bought premade Two-Bite brownies. Then I used store bought container chocolate icing. I loaded that into a pastry bag and used a large icing tip to add a swirl of icing. Then I melted my vanilla chocolate in the microwave, which takes about 1.5 minutes. Once it was melted, I used gel icing colors to color my chocolate. NORMALLY, you would want to use CANDY colors, because icing colors have enough moisture to seize your chocolate and ruin it. This worked out ok for me though. I would recommend you buying the candy colors if you are less experienced at working with chocolate. Once my chocolate was colored, I smoothed a large spoonful onto my Cake Mat, then I put it in the freezer for just about a minute. I only wanted the chocolate a little set, not solid. Then I cut out the clovers, using my Paper Doll Dress Up Cart. I then put them back in the freezer to harden completely. Pull it out and GENTLY crack the excess chocolate away from the cut pieces, then pull off the cut pieces.
After I stuck the clovers into the brownie icing, I lightly sprinkled them with powdered sugar ( confectioners) using my tip cleaner. The little basket holds about a tablespoon of the sugar and the sieves are perfect for dusting the sugar over your items.
Next, the tea cookies.
First, I used the Paper Lace Cart to cut out my doily under my cookies. Then I used some premade lemon cookies ( archway brand) and added white icing from a can to their tops. I used the vanilla chocolate and my Accent Essentials to cut out the 2.75 inch circles that I topped the cookies with.
Then I melted more chocolate, and added the blue color to it. I thinly spread it out like I did with the green clovers, using the same timing and methods of cooling and cutting to cut out two flowers from my Accent Essentials cart. I added some lime color to the rest of my white icing, and then dabbed a little between each chocolate flower, and the circle, using the icing as a ‘glue’. Then I used a small round tip and another pastry bag to add the details to the flower tops.
Don’t these look yummy and pretty!! These cookies and brownies with different chocolate toppers would be wonderful for weddings, showers, Mother’s Day, etc..
Happy St. Pat’s Day!!
***DOWNLOAD Kristen Swain’s St. Pat’s Party Gypsy File HERE***
Cricut Imagine Machine
Imagine Blossom Cartridge- papers and cardstock colors
Cricut Expression Machine
Gypsy Design Device
Cricut Cake Machine
Cardstock- American Crafts
Buttons/twine/- craft supply
Punch- EK Success
Base Camp-
Kiss Me Im Irish letters- 0.99 inches tall
tea&blarney letters-1.35 inches tall
Smiley Cards-
tea cup- 2.88,1.47 inches tall
plate-2.88 inches tall
Indie Art-
lips- 1.09 inches tall
Paper Lace-
doily-6.65 inches tall
Paper Doll Dress Up
clover ( pin, invite, placecard) 1.59 inches tall
clover (treat bag)- 4.44, 4.21 inches tall
clover ( brownies) 1.25 inches
Accent Essentials
flower shadow ( pin)- 2.39 . 1.81 inches tall
flower
confectioners sugar
vanilla chocolate/food colors
vanilla and chocolate icing
cookies and brownies
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