Tea Set

I was hard-pressed in creating the perfect card for my sisters birthday which was fast approaching. Late one sleepless night while surfing numerous blog sites for something inspirational and unusual (and about to give up) I stumbled onto something so dang cute and just the "thing" for my tea drinkin' sister -- Suzanne J. Dean's Tea Gift Set (www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com) ... you'll have to scroll down to her list of TUTORIALS & TEMPLATES where you'll find the Tea Bag Box Template/Tutorial.

Of course I had to add a special twist to my creation ... Oodles Of Doodles Crochet Embellishments and I crocheted around the front outer flap. The stacked cups on the card front is a piece from Tea Time stamp set for Deedle-dee Doodles Clearly Stampin' stamps (approximately 2-1/2" x 2-1/2") and used Prisma colored pencils to color in the image. My handcrafted crochet embellishments are listed on eBay - http://blogs.ebay.com/ddd68157 - and I'm trying to list a large variety of items as fast as I can, so please keep checking back!

With Suzanne's measurements, construction was quick and easy, and had me wondering what other box sets could be created. I didn't include a tea towel with my recreation, however, you could include a tea cup & saucer set ... one of those stacked tea pot & cup sets would be nice, or even a linen napkin with a crocheted edging. To my surprise the four individually packaged tea bags inserted neatly between the accordian pleating without "bulging" the box ... how clever! The overall finshed box size is 3" T x 2-3/4" W x 3/4" Deep and basically fits in the palm of your hand -- too cute!

Velcro has a package of 6-sets (1/2" - 12mm) peel & press on hook and fastener dots that worked out well to keep the flap closed -- easily reopens. Now she can carry it in her purse for that quick spot of tea at work or anytime and it's refillable!