A minimal page with the Downtown Tea Party kit

Hi again.

Did you catch the recent discussion on the Quirky Kits chat thread over on UKScrappers regarding how far the kits go / how many pages can be made using them? The first person to ask the question was actually referring to the 'Lite' Quirky Kits but equally the discussion it created could be applied to the full kits too.

As most people suggested, how far the kit lasts depends entirely on how much you like to add to one page, whether you use the plain card as a backing and add to it, or if you start with full sheet of 12x12 patterned paper and so on ...

So today I thought I'd share a very minimal page I made using the Downtown Tea Party kit using plain cardstock as a base and only the smallest snippets of pattern:

It really is about as restrained as I can manage - I love colour and pattern too much - but I do like how calm the page feels, which reflects the photograph of an outdoor sculpture exhibition nicely.

Before adding my tiny cluster of layered papers I spritzed the white card with shadesof light green and lilac ink and stamped a mesh design too in green and light grey:

You might just be able to make out a slight colour on the alpha stickers which I added using Promarkers, just to soften them.

To embellish the page I used two of the butterflies from the kit and punched two more from paper in the kit:

I ran them through the sewing machine adding wavy lines in a light colour thread:

Having made four layouts and a mini book already with this kit ... there's still around half of it left.

Plus, using my kit supplies at this particular minimal rate would mean I'd be dipping into it for a great while longer!

If you've missed any of the items I've made with this kit, you can drop by the Flickr set in which I keep all my previous Quirky Kit projects.

Happy creating.

Julie

Downtown Tea Party Quirky Kit: A page with pastels

Hi again.

For my third project with the Downtown Tea Party kit I made a page which draws together some of the more muted colours in the kit:

I chose the Cosmo Cricket 'Re:peat' design as my backing paper, but used the more muted graph paper design on the reverse as it fitted with the soft shades in my photographs.

I love using graph paper and ledger / lined paper designs asbacking sheets as they're plain enough to build upon without being too fussy, but not as cold a starting point as a blank sheet of cardstock. Also, for this particular page, the lines on it helped reinforce my use of stitching through my layers.

On top of my base paper I began adding strips of text cut from the Cosmo Cricket 'Re:make' design to co-ordinate with the 'lettering' theme of the page drawn from the photos of me reading a hanging curtain of poetry at an exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

I created a triangle of embellishments across the page with each of the three clusters containing snippets of soft peachy shades. Here I cut a flower from the Pink Paislee House of Three Soiree ‘Floral’ paper as well asa sunburst design from the twine packaging!

The tiny section of the Shabby Chic journaling spot was just what remained after I used it on the micro-mini book I shared earlier. I'm so pleased it didn't end up in my recycling bin as it just adds an extra little point of interest on the page.

In the bottom two clusters I used tiny pieces of the fabric in the kit for a splash of colour inspired by the orange patterned dress and scarf I'm wearing in the photos! 

Once everything was fixed in place I ran it through the sewing maching to add some texture and to reflect the hanging strands of the poetry sculpture. The gently spattered a coral shad eof Shimmerz paint across the three embellishment clusters and smeared on some white acrylic paint direct from the tube.

Overall this page has a much more muted feel than the micro book I made with kit and it's different again to the second page I've made featuring photos from the sculpture park ... which I'll share with you in my next post here.

So how do you use your kits?

1. Do you like to use them to keep a general colour theme and similar style running across several projects?
2. Or do you break them up into smaller, co-ordinating mini-kits, with a new feel to each page?

As I say, I'll be back soon with a page with a completely different feel in colour and style ... so I guess that makes me No.2 on that list. How about you?

I'll see you soon.

Julie

Downtown Tea Party - minibook

by Julie Kirk
Hi again.
For my second project with 'Downtown Tea Party' - the latest Quirky Kit - I used the papers and embellishments from the kit to decorate a micro-book as a birthday gift for a friend:

My cover features a painted chipboard heart to which I added one of the kit's butterflies in turquoise and one of the gorgeous cerise pink resin rose beads.

The tie closures are made from twisting together a strand of each of the various colours of Pink Paislee baker's twine:

To decorate the tiny pages I simply tore and roughly cut, sections from the various papers down to size.

Here's a little snippet from the Pink Paislee Daily Junque ‘Tickets’ design which I glued onto the book's existing page:

Next I glued down half a Shabby Chic Crafts journaling card on top of which I added a yellow paper butterfly.
Once my glue dried I ran the page - as I did every page in the book - through my sewing machine with a contrasting black thread, trying here to give the impression of antennae:

I continued throughout the book, decoratively stitching-down the small strips of the paper as I went along:

To add another level of detail and texture to the book I splattered, smeared and scraped complimentary coloured paints along, around and across it.

I used white paint where I wanted a plain base on to which I could stamp my chosen words:

It was such a tiny gift, which you can judge by its size compared to my thumb here:

... so I decided to make it a protective bag from the candy pink tulle net fabric from the kit:

It was simply a piece cut to size, folded and stitched on the machine along the bottom and side.
To fasten - I just wrapped another length of  baker's twine around it and tied a bow:

Using your kit on something so small is a great way to:

• see a great combination of lots of the papers all at once, in a small space;
• make a big feature of those small butterfly and journaling block embellishments;
• experiment with a few messy techniques [like paint splattering and border stamping] on a tiny canvas - with less romm for error!
• use up scraps once you've already used your kit to make several layouts.

If you'd like a few more close-ups of the detail of the book check out this post on my blog  and I'll be back here soon with something more 12x12-sized I think!

See you soon.

Julie  :-)

'Downtown Tea Party' Quirky Kit: Curiouser + Curiouser

Hello. Again.

One year on since blogging my final project as a full-time Quirky Kit Design Team member, I'm thrilled to be back as a guest for the 'Downtown Tea Party' kit!

So, considering it's both a reunion and a tea party ... I thought I'd better make an effort to dress up for the occasion. How about if I wear this ...:

My friends and I go an a crafting 'retreat' twice a year and we usually pick a theme to base our gifts, food and projects on.

The latest theme was 'The Mad Hatter's Tea Party' and one of my friends surprised us all by bringing along 4 professionally made pantomine-style costumes for us to play with!

 Naturally ... being amongst scrapbookers ... there were lots of photos taken and I've been holding off scrapping them while waiting for this kit as I had my eye on the pink + white candy stripe ribbon. How perfectly does it match 'my' amazingly swooshy dress?

As for the pink + white striped paper edging ... that's the paper bag all of the embellishments come tucked inside within the kit!
I used a X-Cut edge punch along the bottom of it, pleated it and pressed it down into my double sided tape, then stamped a decorative doily-edge border along it.
Then I threaded various shades of the Pink Paislee 'Daily Junque' bakers twine through the punched out sections and finished with a tiny off-cut of the pink ribbon:

I also tied the Pink Paislee 'Daily Junque' bakers twine around the bodies of the paper butterfly embellishments, snipping the ends to form antennae:

The Pink Paislee ‘Tickets’ patterned paper was almost too nice to cut into, but once I braved it I used it as a strip across the centre:

Then punched a scalloped circle from it and used the alternative pattern on the reverse as a journaling block in the centre and finally cut around one of the roses to add a little focal point to the top corner:

And here's the final page again so you can see how it all hangs together:

I'll be dropping by throughout the month to share some more pages I've been making with this kit ... maybe there'll even be another costume ... or two ... we'll see!

Make sure you share your Quirky Kit projects by linking them up in a comment or via the Crafty Templates Twitter account or Facebook page.
So, I'll see you soon for more Downtown Tea Party-ing ... I'll bring the cakes if you put the kettle on.
Julie   / @notesonpaper x
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Supplies list for my 'Curiouser + Curiouser' page. Everything taken from the Downtown Tea Party kit:

• American Crafts Kraft cardstock
• Pink Paislee House of Three, Daily Junque ‘Tickets’ patterned paper
• Kesi’art Bout d'Ficelle, ‘Cotton’ patterned paper
• Cosmo Cricket ‘Heart in the Dark’ chipboard alphabet stickers 
• Kesi’art Script alphabet stickers, noir.
• Pink/white candy stripe ribbon
• Pink Paislee Daily Junque bakers twine
• Paper butterfly embellishments
• Paper bag - packaging! 

The structure of the layout was inspired by Sketch 240 from the Pencil Lines sketch challenge blog.