Tea Party Favors In-a-Jar

Please excuse my lack of posting this week! And thank you all for sticking with me anyway! :) It was the first few days of school and it's taking me a while to get back in the swing of things. Did your kids start school already?

I co-hosted our church ladies annual tea party a couple of months ago and was in charge of the favors. I wanted to do something a little different, but keep it simple and thrifty. Anybody can put together favors like these - no craftiness required! :)

I had been saving empty jars {from Costco's sliced peaches in jars} for months and hubs was starting to wonder if I was turning into a hoarder! :) Bing! I knew that I could use the jars for my favors and tried to think of different ways to fill them. In the end, I made it very simple. And so tea party favors in-a-jar were born! The favors didn't include as many items as I would have liked, but the ladies seemed to enjoy them anyway!

If you're sitting down for a cup of tea, what do you need other than the pretty teacup {teacups & saucers were given to all the ladies to take home}? This would be a good start:

You need some tea to choose from, of course and you can't go wrong with some shortbread cookies! A pretty cloth napkin finishes it out. {You could include all sorts of items like tea spoons/stirrers, sugar packets or cubes, chocolate, a classic book from the thrift store, etc.}

Originally I was going to stuff the jars with the goody-filled napkins and top them with the lids over paper doilies. As I was working on them, I came up with this idea and liked it better.

I pulled the ends of the napkin out like flower petals and pinched together a paper doily to look like a flower. Much prettier than my original idea! Of course, a truly crafty person would have added pretty ribbon on the outside of the jar and a cute tag hanging from it, but I'm usually running short of time! :)

And *bonus* - each lady gets a nice practical, functional jar to take home! :) I handed out the lids to everybody before they left.

Materials I used:
 ~ Jars that I saved up, removed labels, and cleaned up - free
 ~ Cloth napkins {looked unused} purchased at half-price at the thrift store - less than 50 cents each
 ~ 2 boxes tea purchased at my regular discount grocery store - maybe 20-25 cents a bag?
 ~ Shortbread cookies purchased in box of 20 at World Market with discount coupon - less than 50 cents each
 ~ Paper doilies that I already had sitting in a drawer - free

So that means each favor cost less than $1.50! Not bad!

If you're looking for more tea party favor ideas, you can check out some of my past attempts:
 ~ Tea Party Favors {2008} - using teacups
 ~ Tea Party Favors {2009} - using recipe boxes
 ~ Tea Party Favors {2010} - using teacups

This post linked to:
 ~ Chic & Crafty Party at The Frugal Girls.
 ~ Thrifty Thursday at The Purposeful Mom.
 ~ I'm Lovin' It at TidyMom.
 ~ Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou.

What are some favorite tea party favors that you have received or given?

Have a lovely and blessed day friends! And don't forget that Savor 7 {Saturday} will be happening again this weekend - post about and link up your 7 blessings! You can link up your post all weekend, not just on Saturday {and I'll be promoting them on FB and Twitter!}.

Tea For Two-sday ~ Tea Cup Favors and Mini Caramel Mud Cakes

It's still Tuesday - even on the East coast - so I'm posting this!  I recently helped co-host a tea party for some lovely ladies and wanted to share a couple things.

I did my favorite kind of favors - tea cups and saucers that the ladies get to keep!  In order to do this, I have to start ahead of time looking at yard sales and thrift stores.  My goal is always to pay $1 or less per cup and saucer (sometimes I spend a little more if I'm not finding what I like).  The best way I've found is to go to Good Will stores where they have cups ad saucers separate.  If you spend a while searching, you can find cups and saucers that match, but were separated.  Then they're only 49 cents for each cup and each saucer!

This time I collected over 20 of them and put a tea bag and a truffle in each one.  Here's a picture of a few of them:

I also helped with the food.  One of the recipes I made was Caramel Mud Cakes from my Cupcakes cookbook - but I made them into mini cupcakes.  Aren't they cute?

Sadly, by the next morning the powdered sugar had melted into the cupcakes and you could barely make out the hearts.  So don't do that part ahead of time!  :)

Caramel Mud Cake

1 stick butter, chopped coarsely
3 1/2 oz. white chocolate, chopped coarsely
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup self-rising flour
1 egg

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line 6-hole oversize (Texas) or 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper baking cups.  (I made 36 mini cupcakes.)

2.  Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, honey, and milk in small pot; stir over low heat, until smooth.  Transfer mixture to medium bowl, cool 15 minutes.

3.  Whisk sifted flours into chocolate mixture, then egg.  Divide among baking cups.

4.  Bake large cakes about 40 minutes, small cakes about 30 minutes. (I baked the minis 15-20 minutes.)  Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.

5.  Sift powdered sugar onto cakes in desired design.  On full-sized cakes you can use lace or a doily to make them pretty - didn't work right for me on the minis so I used a little heart stencil I had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They turned out cute and they were yummy, but I would much rather have experienced the full flavor of a standard sized cupcake!

I hope you found a new idea to try!  Have a lovely day/evening/night my friends!

Tea For Two-sday ~ Tea Party Favors

Happy Tea For Two-sday! Glad you could join me! Pick out a pretty teacup, fill it up, and have a seat - I think you deserve a little break! :)

For our recent ladies' tea party, I had to come up with the favors. I wanted something a little different. Once I had my idea, I headed to Michael's for some supplies. But when I got there, I saw these adorable recipe boxes for $1 each and just HAD to make them the favors for the ladies!

Inside of each one, I included a "Recipe for Friendship" (search the web for that - you'll find all sorts of variations), some blank recipe cards, a little poem I wrote, a bag of chocolate tea, and a Ghiradelli chocolate. The ladies seemed to like them. If you've been here a while, you know I like to write silly little tea poems! Here's the one I wrote this time:

Recipe For Relaxation

A nibble of chocolate
And a sip of tea
Transport the lady
To a daydream sea
With tea-colored sands
Under chocolate trees,
Like a mini vacation
That puts the soul at ease.

by Lisa W.

I did different favors for the little girls and I did not remember to take pictures of them! I got mini tote bags in pink and green and used white glitter glue to write each girl's name on a bag. Inside I put pastel plaid pencils, mini notebooks, a bag of vanilla tea, and a fun-size candy bar. Simple, but cute!

I hope that gives you some more ideas for party favors! Have a lovely tea-lightful day my friends!

I'm linking this up to Do It Yourself Day (DIY Day) at A Soft Place To Land! You can find all sorts of great projects, crafts, recipes, etc. linked up!

Tea for Two-sday ~ Tea Party Favors

One of the fun things to think up for a tea party is the favors. I'm no expert, but thought I would share some of the favors my friends and I have come up with before. Please excuse the poor lighting in the pics.

We had a tea party baby shower with a flowers theme, and gave these as favors to the ladies:

The little flower pots contained a packet of seeds, 2 kinds of flower bud teas, and a card with a tea poem inside. And for the little girls (sorry - I don't have one to show you) we painted mini clay pots with chalkboard paint and filled them with a flower frame craft, chalk and a piece of felt for their pot, and candy - I think.

I had a tea with a lemon theme, and gave these as favors:

Each lady got to pick her own teacup which contained a lemon teabag and lemon drops. The teacup was part of the favor - I'll talk about that at the end.

We had another baby shower tea and had a cupcake theme, so gave these as favors:

The cups included a bag with French Vanilla tea and a bookmark with a cupcakes & tea poem. These also included a piece of ferraro rochet candy (they kind of look like little cupcakes), but I don't have a piece sitting around! The teacup was again included as a favor.

Favors can be as simple as a little bag with a teabag and a piece of candy, or something creative that fits with the theme. Tea accessories might be nice, or a handkerchief, or I have heard the idea of little books. My favorite places to hunt down favors are the thrift stores.

What the ladies seem to enjoy the most is getting their own teacup as a favor. I have done this (with help) a few times now and always come up with enough cups and saucers for all. I search the thrift stores and yard sales, if time. I try to keep a goal of not paying more than $1 for each cup and saucer, and have even found them for 50 cents! Good Will has been great for me - I look at the individual cups and individual saucers and search for the matches (surprising how often they are there). It costs less than if they have already paired them up. My son loves to help me "hunt" for the matches!

I hope this helps give you a few ideas for favors if you have to plan any parties.

Have a lovely tea-filled Two-sday!