Category Archives: Botanical Tea

A Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio

Frilly and Funkie “The Year of…” Challenge: A Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio

Hello, Friends!  Have you chosen an inspirational word or phrase for 2018 yet?  My word is “kindness.” The latest challenge at Frilly and Funkie is called, “The Year of…” and it’s all about creating a project that represents your word of the year.  I created A Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio for the project.  But before I share that with you, let’s take a look at what Suzz, our lovely hostess this go round, has to say about this challenge:

Challenge Theme: 2018 – The Year of
Welcome to a brand new year!  I am not very good at New Year Resolutions but I do like to think about what I want to focus on in the New Year.  To help me do this, I pick a word that is my word for the year and try to use that word to keep me focused on what is important. The challenge to you is to  pick a word that will be your inspiration for 2018.  Create a vintage or shabby chic project that includes your word of 2018.  The word can be part of a sentiment, phrase or stand alone on your project as long as it is featured somewhere in your art.

Botanical Tea Folio Botanical Tea by Kathy Clement Product by Graphic 45 Photo 1

A Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio

Suzz comes up with challenge themes that really make me think!  There are so many good inspirational words to choose from.  After mulling this over for several days, I decided that 2018 would be the year of KINDNESS for me.  There are many obvious reasons why our world could benefit from a little more kindness in 2018, and I’m sure you are thinking about them right now.

But I chose the word kindness for personal reasons.  My dear husband Dale and I are coming up on 42 years of wedded bliss next month.  That’s 4 decades plus a tip!  We meet a lot of young couples (and not so young couples) who are floored when we tell them how long we’ve been married.  The first question they always ask is, “How have you managed to stay married for so long?”  Dale and I have talked a lot about this in the past several months, and we both agreed that making the decision to do and say kind things for and about one another is probably one of the top reasons why we are still happily married today.

Daily Acts of Kindness

Kindness does not have to be a big sacrificial act.  Although sometimes, it is a personal sacrifice to be kind.  But I find its true power lies in the little daily acts of kindness that we do for one another.  For instance, Dale fixes me a cup of my favorite tea each morning.  It’s a simple act of kindness, but it smooths the pathway of our walk together.  So now you can see why I chose to make this tea themed  Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio.  There was method to my madness!

This little silver spoon was a find on one of my many junkin’ expeditions.  Make it shabby chic by painting it with a light coat of Picket Fence Distress Paint.  Then fill the bowl with glitter glass shards.  The Eiffel Tower Cabochon is the perfect finishing touch!

A Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio:  The details

The folio base measures 5″ x 7″ with a 1/2″ spine at the top fold.  It’s layered up with Graphic 45’s Botanical Tea papers.  The stacked teacups are die cut with Tim’s Tea Time Bigz Die.  I’ve tucked a little tag inside the top cup, just for fun.

The real “meat” of this project can be found on the inside.  In addition to a tea wallet and honey stick in the large bottom pocket, I’ve prepared a 5″ x 5.5″ gatefold folio.

The folio is held shut with a ribbon closure.

Open it, and you’ll find lots of lovely little pockets, tags, fold outs and flip pages.

These G45 Ivory ATC tags are more than just pretty faces.  I’ve added a quote about kindness to the back of each tag.

And the fold out pages have quotes in them too.  I wrote the quotes in my own hand for two reasons.  One, I like to write.  The other reason is that I cherish handwritten notes from friends and family.  My handwriting may not be perfect, but it’s an expression of who I am.  The older I get, the more I value a hand written message.

Because this folio is hard to photograph, I decided to do a short video walk through.

A Cup of Kindness Botanical Tea Folio Video on YouTube

If you’re a fan of Botanical Tea (I sure am!) you’ll be happy to know that you can pre-order the Deluxe Collector’s Edition at an unbeatable price right now at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Now it’s YOUR Turn!

What word will you choose to represent 2018?  You are cordially invited to join in on this fun challenge.  Simply create a vintage or shabby chic project that represents your word for 2018.  Then link it up over on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog before midnight on Tuesday, January 30th.

The Frilly and Funkie team will choose our top four picks. We’ll invite the creator of our favorite project  to join us as a Guest Designer at Frilly and Funkie. The next three favorites will receive Top 3 badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I can’t wait to see what you make!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this Botanical Tea Folio in the comment section below.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cheerio,

kathy

Products from The Funkie Junkie Boutique

NOTE: The Botanical Tea Collection from Graphic 45 will be available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.



Shabby Chic Winter Hues Mini Album

Frilly and Funkie Challenge: Shabby Chic Winter Hues Mini Album

Hello, Friends!  Welcome to another fun challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  This time around the fabulous Suzz is our hostess and the theme is Winter Hues.  I pulled out all sorts of lovely blue and white goodies from so many different companies to create this little Shabby Chic Winter Hues Mini Album.  This is the product mash up of all product mash ups! We’ll take a closer look in a second.  But first, let’s see what Suzz has to say about this challenge:

Winter time brings such a beautiful mix of colors. This challenge requires you use any or all of the following colors: blue, white, silver, gray in your vintage or shabby chic project.

I hope you will link up and play along with us.  The design team will chose their favorite project from all the entries and invite that artist to join us for a guest designer spot on the Frilly and Funkie Blog.  The top three choices will receive a badge to display proudly on their blogs.  And everyone who plays along and follows the guidelines will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 shopping spree at the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  What fun!  You can link up and find all the details HERE.

I have loads of photos and tips to share with you, so let’s get this party started!

Shabby Chic Winter Hues Mini Album

Let me start by saying how much fun I had creating this little album.  I cut medium weight chipboard to measure 3 5/8″ by 5.5″ and cut a spine to measure 1.5″ x 3 5/8″.  Sticky back canvas covers the spine and wraps around  to span the front and back covers.

I love making little albums like this “from scratch.”  To keep with Suzz’ directive to use shades of blue, white, silver and grey, I dipped into my Graphic 45 Place in Time and Botanical Tea papers and Pion Designs Shoreline Treasures and Paris Flea Market.  I’ve used Tammy Tutterow Spellbinder dies throughout the album, and I think you’ll be excited to see how they have been employed.

A Happy Accident

The pretty blue pinstripe paper is from Pion Designs Shoreline Treasures.  I wanted to keep the cover pretty clean and simple to sort of echo the way the world looks after a fresh snowfall.

Tammy’s innovative snowflake stamp is designed in such a way that it automatically creates a shadow layer every time you stamp it.  My thought was to Stamp it in French Blue Archival Ink.  Then I traced around it very quickly using Art Institute dries clear glue.  The plan was to then sprinkle the glue with superfine glitter.  Which I thought I grabbed from my bin.  But…guess what?

I grabbed superfine white embossing powder instead.

(Insert panic attack here.)

Once I calmed down, I decided I might as well just roll with the punches.  What’s done is done.  So I went ahead and heat embossed the glue/embossing powder mixture.

Happy accident!

It created this really cool raised edge effect on the snowflake. I think you can pick it up just a little in this close up shot.  But in real life, it looks slightly shiny and as this cool bumpy texture.  I would totally do this again on purpose.

Before gluing the snowflake in place, I put down a layer of Ivory Silky Crush Ribbon and gorgeous Venise lace trim.  These were attached with 1/2″ Scor-Tape and 1/8″ red line tape.  Then I fussy cut images from the January page of Place in time and layered those over the snowflake.

Wool felt Pom Pom Posies make the perfect floral  cluster.  I added in lots of vintage buttons from my button stash.  The tab in the top right corner is cut with Tammy’s die as well.

Paper Bag Pocket Pages

Say THAT 3 times really fast!  Tammy has this darling paper bag pocket die that makes great mini album pages.  See what you think.

The pockets were cut from white cardstock and then embellished with designer papers.  There’s a slash pocket on the left.

I filled it up with a little vintage button card and a post card from Place in Time.  Petaloo Vintage Velvet Hydrangea Blossoms add a fun touch of texture and sparkle.

Versatility in a die is a wonderful thing.  This sentiment is written on Tammy’s Mini Tag Book Die.  I trimmed off the bottom edge so that it would fit the scale of this mini album then decorated it with crochet lace and vintage buttons.

The paper bag die comes with a sweet little insert and I cut a bunch of these to go inside the pockets as photo mounts.  Each is decorated with another of Tammy’s Tab Dies and a vintage button.

This little paper spool is from the Paris Flea Market collection.  I wrapped it with Venise lace and a vintage button.  Isn’t it just too shabbylicious for words?

And here we are at the end.  Since I had one more little die cut bag, I went ahead and glued it to the inside cover.

I love the soft, nostalgic feel of this shabby chic winter hues mini album, don’t you?  Combining so many different textures adds interest to the simple design.

I hope I’ve shared some ideas you can use here.  I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

Product Links to the Funkie Junkie Boutique

Save

Save

Save


Save