PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Tea Bag Holder Version 2

Have you seen the new version of the tea bag holder popping up on Pinterest like this?

(CLICK HERE for the Original Pin)

My patient and talented paper crafter, Patsy, made me smile BIG TIME at work recently by giving me one for Easter:

The nice thing about this new version is that you can add some cookies to the center because there is plenty of room between the two sides! (See a bag a cookies in the very first photo above?) Now that Easter is over, I've been making all-occasion versions non-stop! The various double-sided papers make each one look entirely different:

Front View

Back View 

(Individual tea bags wrapped in cellophane

from Trader Joe's work well for this project!)

Love this paper!

I decided to make some directions for my card making friends using Patsy's tea bag holder. It started out with this photo:

Then I had a moment of clarity and decided to look for instructions online...and voilà!...here is the glorious pdf I found and a video tutorial, too! Maybe you'll become obsessed with making these --- just like me!

For the pdf instructions, CLICK HERE

and for the video tutorial, watch below:

NOTE: I discovered when folding the four corners to the fold lines to create a diagonal fold that it's best to leave a little space between the edges and the 2 1/2" and 6 " fold lines so the whole thing folds up better!

Here are more clever versions of the tea bag holder that I found on Pinterest this past week:

CLICK HERE for the Original Pin

CLICK HERE for the Original Pin

CLICK HERE for the Original Pin

CLICK HERE for Original Pin

and links to instructions

PIN IT FRIDAY FAVS: Tea Party Time and the Very Best of Pinterest Pins

One of my favorite things to do is have a tea party! Here's a table set up from a tea party my neighbor and I hosted for a neighbor recovering from surgery: 

This weekend, I'm having a tea party for my mom, a coworker and her mom, so I wanted to make a tea party favor that would serve as a candy holder and place card, too. Based on a previous post on my blog, I made these teacup favors:

You can click HERE for the tutorial referenced on my blog.

Once you make one cup, it becomes easy peasy to make these lovely little cups! It's so fun to use up some of my treasured DSP paper and each teacup only requires a piece of paper that measures 8"x 5 1/2". I added a sampler of Hershey chocolates in each cup along with a tea bag from this box below which is now one of my favorite decaf teas:

Each tea sachet is individually wrapped in a clear cellophane bag and looks so pretty in each of my paper teacups! I recently bought these Chamomile Citrus tea bags at Safeway after a friend served it to me at her house...now...it's a regular evening treat!

Below I have highlighted some of my most favorite tea party pins:

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

Original Pin HERE

CHRISTMAS IN JUNE CARD CHICKS

We had another fun night of paper crafting with the Card Chicks at our annual Christmas in June card party last Friday!

 Janie, Alice and Rachel

Each person brought a Christmas tag for all of us to make. Here is the set of ten tags:

Inside View

Tiffany was on a European Disney cruise and asked me to design a tag for her while she was away...so I thought a Disney tag was in order! All of the tags went into the boxes inside a MAGIC BOX:

There's a nice set of instructions to make these boxes on A LIFE AS LOU blog HERE. To make the tea bag holder shown next to the Magic Box above, click HERE. My sister brought a cute little purse as a favor for all of us, too!

It's hard to believe, the REAL Christmas will be here in six months! Time flies when you're having fun!

PS Video Tutorial

PS To view Brenda's video tutorial for the tea bag holder shown in my last post (which also holds a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate or a small note in the back pocket) go to: http://tinyurl.com/teabagholder