At Home

I used to work at a printing firm a long, long time ago, in the office. We used to get orders for printing 'At Home' cards. I thought it was a delightful idea.

Here is some history which explains the origins & tradition of being 'At Home'.

The Shabby Tea Room's challenge & inspiration photo 'High Tea' reminded me of this idea.


The provided photo is delicious in itself with the teacup & saucer decorated in crisp turquoise with gold edging & flourishes and a sweet pink rose. We are to use the colours in the photo and doilies.

Here is my card. I have made it an invitation to be sent to someone inviting them to drop round for a cup of tea and some cake! A sort of At Home card.

I made the backing paper myself using stamps with turquoise and gold ink. The stamped flowers look a bit random. They were meant to line up alternately ..but the light was fading so I had to hurry a bit.

I also made the palest pink flower myself from some colour(ink)-washed paper scrunched up & punched. I punched a frilly heart and covered it in nearly half a bottle of turquoise glitter!

The 'invitation' stamp is quite sweet & it was being sold off cheap, it was only a couple of ££s. I stamped twice and cut the invitation sentiment off one stamped image and used foam tape to position it over the first stamp to add a bit of dimension and finished it off with two Melissa Frances blue sticky pearls.

The flourish stamped in gold just above the doilies is from Hobbycraft who have started doing their own range of small stamps. It was perfect for this project.

Despite having two largeish craft stores a few miles away I struggle to find the best things to use, including doilies. I did however find these little ones.. though they are made of thin paper & are a bit shiny on one side (so I turned them over to have the more matte side which I think is nicer facing front. I had to put three on together to make it thicker & so that you could actually see they are there!

Finished with a bit of pink ribbon.

(And a cup of tea).