Dyed Doilies

     Dyed doilies add a fun pop of color to any tea party.  While this method is intended for coffee filter doilies, cloth doilies can be dyed in a similar fashion.

Materials:

*Water
*Food coloring
*Doilies
*Plastic container large enough to hold a doily
*Paper towels

Directions:

*Fill the container halfway with water.

*Add a few drops of food coloring.

*Dunk a doily in the water for a few seconds.

*Carefully remove the doily and lay it out to dry on a paper towel.

*To minimize wrinkling, you can press doilies under a heavy book if you'd like.

Coffee Filter Doilies

     Doilies can make for lovely tea party decorations, but they can be pricey.  Crocheting is another option, but that can be time consuming and is less than ideal if your tea party guests are messy eaters.  Coffee filter doilies make for pretty place settings and they're relatively fast to make, so if they are destroyed during the course of the event, it's less of a big deal.  If you want your doilies to be a color other than white, next week we'll talk about dyeing them, so stay tuned.

Materials:

*Coffee filters
*Pencil
*Scissors

Directions:

*Fold your coffee filters into eighths or sixteenths.

*Sketch out a pattern for your doily, if you would like.

*Cut along the pattern, or try free form shapes.  It's basically the same process as making paper snowflakes, but with perhaps different designs.

Giant Paper Roses

     What could be more fitting for a Wonderland tea party than giant paper roses?  I made these black ones for my Gothic Alice look, but red or white (or red and white) would work well if you're going for a classic Wonderland look.  This craft was inspired by this post from Martha Stewart's website.

Me as Gothic Alice with one of the giant roses in the background.

Materials:

*Long wooden dowel, at least 1/4" thick
*Green paint
*Green duct tape
*Poster paper in the color or colors of your choice (that's what I used, although crepe paper or other papers may be better suited for this project)
*Pencil

Directions:

*Paint the dowel green.  Let dry.

*Print out the templates given below.

*Trace and cut out 5 of the teardrop shaped petals and 15 of the heart shaped petals.

*Curl one of the teardrop shaped petals and tape it onto the dowel.

*Curl a second teardrop shaped petals and tape it to the dowel as well.

*Curl and tape the remaining teardrop shaped petals.

*Curl and tape the heart shaped petals.  For those petals, you'll also want to curl the top edge down a bit to give it a more petal-like appearance.

Paper Mache Mushroom

     Spring may still be weeks away, but it's not too soon to start planning spring crafts.  For the next few weeks, I'll be posting a series of crafts culminating in a Wonderland tea party.  While I used this oversized mushroom for Halloween rather than for a tea party, an oversized mushroom or two could add some whimsy to any Wonderland themed bash.

Materials:

*Tall oatmeal canister or two
*Scrap cardboard
*Newspaper
*Paper mache mixture of your choice (mine was just watered down glue, but there are other recipes out there that might work better)
*Paint in red and white or colors of your choice
*Paintbrush
*Duct tape
*All purpose adhesive
*Heavy rock (optional)

Directions:

*Place a heavy rock at the bottom of the oatmeal container.  This will weigh it down so that it will be less likely to tip over.

*If one canister isn't tall enough, tape two oatmeal containers together to form your mushroom's stem.

*Cut out a cardboard circle as large as you would like your mushroom to be at its widest point.

*Glue or tape the cardboard circle to the oatmeal container.

*Cut off a strip of cardboard that is several inches longer than the diameter of the circle.  Curve it to form an arch and then tape the ends of the arch to either side of the circle.

*Add wadded up newspaper to form the mushroom top shape.

*Cover the top of the mushroom with strips of duct tape.

*Next comes to paper mache part.  I just mixed some glue with water, dunked strips of newspaper into the mixture, and then plastered the strips of newspaper to the mushroom.  The strips I used were way too big, so the surface of my mushroom ended up being rougher than I would have liked, so I would recommend using smaller strips.  Let dry.

*Paint your mushroom.  It might be a good idea to spray paint the whole mushroom white and then, once the white paint has dried, paint the top of the mushroom whatever color you would like.

Horror Pocket Pals Michael Myers Plushie Box

     For Jacob's Michael Myers plushie, I thought it would be neat to make a box for it so it looked like it was designed to be a children's toy.  Here is how you can design a box for your own plushie.

Materials:

*Empty cardboard box that is the right size for your plushie

*Black paint (spray paint would probably work best to get a uniform coating, although I used regular paint for this project)

*Box cutter

*Laminator

*Scissors

*Halloween DVD art

*Letter stickers or die cuts

*All purpose adhesive

*Black cardstock

*Ruler

*Photo of your plushie (optional)

*White cardstock and black marker (optional)

Directions:

*On the front face of the box, draw a window slightly larger than your plushie.  Cut the window area out using a box cutter.  Do not discard the cardboard window you've cut out.

*Paint the box black.  It may take multiple coats to achieve this.  Let dry.

*Run a sheet of laminate through the laminator with nothing in between the laminate.  Press under a heavy book as soon as it comes out of the laminator to smooth out any wrinkling.

*Once the laminate has cooled, trim it so that it is about 1/2" wider than the window in the box on all four sides.  Glue to the box.

*Cut a sheet of black cardstock so that it has the same dimensions as the front of your box.

*Cut a window from the cardstock that is the same size or slightly smaller than the window of your box.  Glue it to your box.

*Add a "poster" to the inside of the box by gluing or taping down the cover art for Halloween.

*To create a stand for your plushie, cut the cardboard window you set aside so that it has the same dimensions as the "floor" of the box.

*Place your plushie atop the cardboard strip you cut out and mark where its feet are.  Cut out a space for the feet using a box cutter.  You'll want your plushie's feet to fit snugly inside these slots, so it's better to cut them a little small and then enlarge if needed.

*Glue the cardboard strip with the foot holes into the box.

*To decorate the outside of the box, add some letter stickers or letter die cuts spelling out the name of the product as well as your character's name (in this case, Horror Pocket Pals is the brand and Michael Myers from Halloween is the character).  Leave room for a photo of the plushie, if you're including one.

*Print a picture of your plushie and add that to the front of the box as well.

*Draw a word bubble for your plushie on white scrap cardstock and add that to the front of the box.

Biohazard Belt

     Add some whimsy to your zombie Valentine's getup with a biohazard belt.

Materials:

*Biohazard tape
*Self-adhesive Velcro
*Yellow felt (optional)
*All purpose adhesive (optional)
*Scissors
*Tape measure (optional)

Directions:

*Cut off a length of biohazard tape a couple of inches longer than your waistline.

*If the tape seems like it will be too transparent, add some yellow felt to the back of the tape to reduce transparency.  My go-to all purpose adhesive did not work as well for this as I would have liked, so if you find an adhesive that works well for this, let me know.

*Adhere the barbed Velcro piece to one end of the tape on the right side of the tape.

*Wrap the tape around your waist, see where the end with Velcro intersects the other end of the tape, and add the other half of the Velcro strip to the wrong side of the tape in that spot.

*Trim any excess tape.

Zombie Felt Chocolates

     Why stop at a zombie candy box?  Give your loved ones a gift with a little bite.

Materials:

*Dark brown felt
*Light brown felt
*Brown thread or embroidery floss
*White thread or embroidery floss
*Red thread or embroidery floss
*Black thread or embroidery floss
*Stuffing
*Ruler
*Metallic marker
*Pencil
*Printer paper

Directions:

*Measure the dimensions of the chocolate cups in your candy box to determine the ideal dimensions for your chocolates.

*Either by hand or using digital software, draw out two dimensional chocolate shapes matching the shape and dimensions of each chocolate compartment.

*Trace and cut out two copies of each shape onto either dark or light brown felt.  If you have multiple candy cups of the same shape, you will want to trace twice the number of shapes as there are compartments with that shape.  For example, my candy box had two identical spots for rectangular candies, so I cut out four rectangular shapes.

*Using your thread or embroidery floss, embroider faces and designs on half of the chocolate shapes.  For some of the chocolates, I wanted to apply a chocolate or white chocolate drizzle effect, so I used a backstitch to sew on diagonal lines first.  Then I created the faces using black thread, which didn't work out super well for the darker chocolates.  After I finished the mouth and eyes, I added some red thread at the corners of the mouths to look like dripping blood.

*Once the faces are done, cut off a strip of felt 1/2" thick and a little longer than the perimeter of one of your chocolates.

*Wrap the felt around the perimeter of the chocolate, overlapping the ends until the felt runs along the edge of your chocolate.  Sew ends together.

*Next you're going to want to sew the chocolate to the felt ring.  If I could do this project over again, I would use blanket stitch, as I think that would have given the chocolates a nicer shape.  So, you can either place the chocolate right side up and place the ring beneath it and use blanket stitch, or you could place the chocolate right side down and place the ring beneath it, and then use backstitch or another stitch of your choice.

*Next you'll want to take one of the blank chocolate shapes and start sewing that to the other side of the ring.  If you're using a blanket stitch, you'll need to leave an opening large enough to add stuffing.  If you're using another stitch, you'll need to leave enough space to turn right side in and then stuff.  Sew closed.