A Way With Words

Calendula Tea, Anyone?

March 13, 2019

Hello, Joyce Schmidt here! Today, I’m using Susan’s Gardens New Spring 2019 Release to create a beautiful card for you.

I was watching Susan’s Garden Club live last Wednesday, she was creating the new Calendula and mentioned that not only was it beautiful, but its edible! In fact, it can be steeped in tea!

This inspired me to create a gatefold card depicting a Calendula cup of tea in a lovely cracked aged china Victorian tea-cup.

1. Die cut:

  • Two of the Garden Notes Victorian tea-cup & saucer and adhered them together with ECD double sided adhesive
  • Three each of the flower pieces from soft finish cardstock
  • Four of the flower centers from brown cardstock Frames
  • One of the 2nd and 3rd largest frames in the Frame It Stitched Rectangles to surround your patterned paper out of pink

2. The tea cup and saucer:

(I used used a beautiful petal pink chalk ink and sponged it on.) Then, attach the saucer to the teacup using a foam dot.

The colored tea-cup is then covered with VersaMark ink and covered it with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). Melt with the heat tool melting until a thick glaze. Repeat this process three times, allow to cool-to-touch in between each application. After the last application, you should have a thick shiny glaze over the entire piece. Put it in the FREEZER… yes freezer… for about 5 minutes. When you take it out it will be very stiff. Begin gently bending it until you hear and see it snap. This process creates a cracked ceramic look on your project!

After it has cooled, adhere it to the assembled card with foam dots and you are ready to fill it with your freshly made Calendula flowers?

3. Creating the flower:

These flowers are as easy to create as they are beautiful and delicate. The color I chose for the flowers in this project was inspired by a Strawberry Pink Calendula I found on Google images. I colored the flowers using Copic color R20 and R81.

Using the small scissors to cut each of the little legs in half just short of the center. Then, using the smallest ball stylus, “cup” the centers on the molding mat. Then dip each leg into glue then into brown pollen.

To shape the petals, use the small loop tool the gently pull toward the center curling the ends of each petal on the molding mat. Repeat this for all flower pieces.

Use the small end of the ball stylus tool to round out the center of each one.

Next, use tweezers to crease the petals to a natural shape.

Using the Beacon kids choice glue I adhered the centers of the flowers together, slightly offset from the one before, int he order of biggest to smallest. Place the centers into flower. Done!

4. The leaves:

I colored the leaves with Copic color G94. Shape the leaves on the molding pad, using the leaf tool, then highlight the the venation with the PanPastels Bright Yellow Green.

Arrange in your tea cup as you’d like and add foliage. (I used the Garden notes pinecone pine boughs and filled in the space.)


I hope you like this project! Let me know what you think in the comments below. You can find a list of the products I used below.

Now I’m off to try Calendula Tea!!!

Happy Crafting!

Joyce

Other:

  • Patterned paper of your choice
  • A paper doiley
  • UTEE
  • Ink color of choice
  • Copic Markers R20, R81, G94

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  • Catherine Mercado March 17, 2019 at 1:52 pm

    Beautiful- Love the flowers and I really loved the step by step instructions for them. Thanks

  • Cyndi Boissoneault March 15, 2019 at 3:00 pm

    What an absolutely awesome card. I love the flowers I will have to order some of those dies. I love the way you put everything together and coordinated the colors beautifully.

  • Rosemary Paul March 14, 2019 at 8:50 pm

    How is this flower edible again?
    I am guessing you need a LOT of patience to create cards like this. I say this because I’ve bought 17 different flower dies from ECD over the last few years and I have yet to create a flower as lovely as the ones shown on the site. I haven’t visited ECD for a few months as I’ve needed to economize, but I’ve seen some lovely new ones since stopping by.
    I have a lot of different gifts in crafting but I suppose creating paper flowers is not one of them. The last one I failed on was the Jasmine. I have 2 large vines growing along the house filled with COnfederate Jasmine. A lovely Spring/Summer scent and a lovely die too…until I tried my hand at it!
    I’ve given up, my flower dies are in a box in the closet. Too bad as there are some lovely new die sets that I haven’t seen before

  • Amy Tsuruta March 14, 2019 at 6:21 pm

    This is beautiful. I’m going to share it in the Coffee Loving Papercrafters FB group!

  • Darlene March 14, 2019 at 8:54 am

    Your flowers are beautiful!!! Love the techniques you demonstrate. Congrats on joining the ECD team. Look forward to seeing more of your designs!

  • Carolyn L March 13, 2019 at 11:51 am

    To echo the previous comments….the shaping and coloration of the blooms is superb and the cracked glaze technique is ingenious! I must also add that your presentation is clear and to the point leaving no unanswered questions as to how you constructed this lovely artwork. Thank you.

  • Nancy March 13, 2019 at 7:56 am

    Really beautiful card, Joyce! Your flowers are gorgeous, and I like the cracked technique on the teacup!

  • Kay Spangler March 13, 2019 at 7:49 am

    How beautiful. The colors and textures make this card magnificent.

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