An Important Date For A Very Secret Tea Party

Hi Friends, we are still in lockdown and perhaps we are all going mad!

Today I have a secret project for you that is inspired by Tea Parties and Alice in Wonderland! I love all things Alice as you can see from my photo below of my very precious hardcover version of the book and this really cool Alice inspired journal.  Oh but what’s that one on the top you ask?  Well this is my super secret hidden tea party book!

I am starting in the best way by covering everything in white gesso.  I also applied the same treatment to the “spine” as I did with my little seahorse book.

I am also using this Alice collection of papers by Stamperia – it does seem to be very popular at the moment doesn’t it?  Ah well, I’m still going to use it but in my own way 🙂

I chose the papers I wanted to use for my “book covers” and also for the “inside” and a few extras like these tiny playing cards and cut them all out.

Then it was time to start painting the box.  I’m using Paperartsy Fresco chalk paints for this in some of my favourite colours, like this Aquamarine.

Someone turned up for a routine water inspection.  Miss Lily realised it was not tasty paint water (yet) and declined to sip from the cup.

I like to enhance the images with Polychromos and make some changes that make it more unique and more me, like recolouring the Cheshire Cat to be more orange.

You can see more of the colouring/recolouring below – the Cheshire Cat has more definition, Alice is more blonde, the White Rabbit has brighter clothes and the branches of the tree are more defined.

After painting the inside of the box, I added some of the bits of paper leftover from fussy cutting to the top and bottom.

Just to make sure there were no gaps between the soon to be inserted background and the box edges, I painted in some extra Lawn.

Here’s my Mad Tea Party which I also recoloured, inserted so that it is curved on the inside of the box rather than following the box edges.  It is glued on the edges of the sides and down the middle but nowhere else, so it makes this nice curved diorama – much more interesting than straight lines.

Here’s another view after it is glued in place.

I then glued the text strip describing the tea party along the bottom of the table.

On the outside, on the opening side I have added the White Rabbit paper and some of the little playing cards.  I thought it made a nice extended scene, showing that he was late for the party that had already started inside the box!

On the other side, I added the paper with Alice and the Cheshire Cat and one of the little “We’re all mad here” quotes. Once everything was complete, I covered it all with a couple of coats of Ultra Matte Varnish for protection.

I have to apologise for some of these photos if they don’t look very clear (like this one), Photoshop announced they were damaged and I couldn’t see how at the time but it does look a little blurry.

Here’s another look at that cover, this time with the original colour plate from the book. Looks like I made Alice a bit too blonde lol.

And another look at the White Rabbit with his book counterpart.

And another look at the tea party colour plate next to my hidden tea party box version.

And how it looks when the secret drawer is slid open… to reveal the tea party inside!

Another view of the book cover with the faux book.

And of course what is the point of a secret tea party box if you don’t fill it up with tea!  I think this would make a really nice gift for a tea-loving friend.  What a surprise they would have when they slid it open and found it full of tea and a Mad Tea Party happening inside!

And once you’ve drunk all the tea, you still have all the Twinings tags to use for another project and the Mad Tea Party revellers are still going strong!  More tea Vicar!

 

I hope you enjoyed this trip inside my head haha, we’re all mad here anyway, right.  Thanks for reading, leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.

Challenges

Countryview Challenges – Tea Party – what else but the most famous of all mad tea parties!
Mini Album Makers May Challenge – I’m submitting my secret tea party hidden inside a faux book as part of the “book arts” element of the challenge

PROJECT RECIPE:

Hidden Drawer Book Box – D165C This is also my 2nd DT project for May and you can read all about it here as well as seeing other great projects from the team.
White gesso
Texture Paste
Stamperia AIW papers
PVA glue
Polychromos
Paperartsy Fresco paints (cheesecake, aquamarine, lawn)
Decoart Ultra Matte Varnish
From Stash: just the tea!

I started something new for April and continuing in May:

Since we are all stuck inside and can’t leave the house, I thought I would try and do two things:
1. use this time to finish any unfinished projects
2. use as much recycled materials as possible (I do this a lot anyway) but also not to buy new stuff!
So, with that in mind, I will note the above on any posts, if applicable.
UNFINISHED PROJECT – NO
RECYCLED MATERIALS – NO, but didn’t buy anything new.