Teatime for Bah Humbug!! #6

I'm still recovering from the shock: TWO cards made today for TWO different challenges with TWO blog posts.....and furthermore, one isn't due until next Thursday and the other has another two weeks to closing!

The theme for this week's Bah! Humbug! Challenge is doileys. Now, last week's Buttons and Bows made me humph just a bit because I don't use either very much, but this new one was even worse - not only have I never used doileys, but I don't like them and have never bought any! Hang on a minute though....didn't I come across a packet buried in my stash drawer when I was looking for the buttons last week?! Goodness only knows where they came from - they must have been a freebie, since not only are they doileys but they are very, very bright gold doileys and really not my style!! Never mind, I can get rid of a couple on a card and with luck I can 'lose' the rest and forget them.

Having all my teabag folding papers over the table inspired me to cover most of one doiley with a large TBF medallion. I punched the 2"/5cm squares from pearlescent paper and used a fold by a South American lady named Carla Prediger. The corner decoration of quarter doileys was somewhat forced on me when I spilt some glue and dropped the card in it (that was just typical of the whole project!) but in the end I was more satisfied with it than I had anticipated. Now, I wonder how I can use the rest of the packet..........

Teabag Folding

It must be at least two years since I last did some teabag folding, although for a considerable time it was my greatest papercraft interst and I compiled a vast file of all the different folds I came across. The Circle of Crafters forum has monthly challenges for teabag folding, iris folding and general cardmaking; yesterday I noticed that the given fold for this month's challenge was one I had done long ago and decided to have a go, using it as an excuse for making yet another Christmas card! The fold is very easy but because it ends up as a 7 sided motif (made from 7 individual squares) it is very tricky to make it look symmetrical, and this one was made even worse by wanting to put a greeting in the middle! I achieved it eventually and it doesn't look too badly out of kilter if you squint at it in a poor light ;)

Let me clear up a misunderstanding for those not familiar with the technique: you do not do anything with soggy teabags. Like so many papercrafts this came from the Netherlands, where teabags are packaged individually in decorative paper bags within boxes. A Dutch lady skilled in origami remembered one morning at breakfast that she had forgotten to make her sister a birthday card for that day. She started folding the teabag packet, then another, and thus developed the method - it's described as modular origami in some books, because true origami is made from a single piece of paper whereas this uses 4, 5, 7 or 8 identically folded pieces. The border on the card shows 3 of the tiles before cutting and folding.

The tile is by Helen Jane's Designs, MS punch is Iron Gate and the circle cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle.