Hi, I'm Torrey. Welcome to Left Field, where creativity runs amok and imagination is ALWAYS more important than knowledge. Shoes are not allowed but ties are optional. This is a repository of snippets from my life out here in Left Field. One never knows what shiny bits of creativity will be found here... cards, scrapbook layouts, photography, poetry, recipes, ponderings, rantings and musings. It could be anything! Life in Left Field is always changing, always real, always ...interesting.

August 10, 2015

High Tea, Texas Style, Part 2 - The Invitations

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

If you're just tuning in to Left Field Studio, you've caught me right in the middle of my "Tea Party" series of posts. Yesterday's post was all about the party favors. 

If you would like to start at the beginning and catch up, you can read about that HERE

Today is part 2--The Invitations. Tomorrow I'll be posting part 3--The Decorations...so please come back!

We finalized our guest list (which proved to be challenging). We couldn't invite all the people we wanted to or could have...where would we put them? It was difficult (REALLY difficult), but we had to cut the guest list off at 10 (12 with me and mom). So, if you weren't invited to this tea party, it wasn't because we don't love you...we just didn't have enough room.

After we had our guest list, I narrowed my design down to three choices as to the overall look/theme.

1) "Texas"--denim, bandana, western.

2) "Mad Hatter"--funky, super colorful, modern.

3) "Elegant"--lacy, flowery, feminine.

Back and forth I went...I actually decided against #1 for this particular party though, in retrospect, I could easily have put a cowboy hat on Miss Talullah and it could have read, "Y'all come join us for High Tea, Texas Style" Hmm, maybe next time around. I ultimately landed on a sort of hybrid of 2) and 3).

What I ended up creating was a funky, color-saturated, feminine-yet-cheeky card. I'll give it this much. It's unique. And the focal image I chose just SCREAMS "High" tea...in its own way. Each card was different, yet similar. Some had a lacy doily, some had ribbons, some had pearls, some had rhinestones, some had stamped flourishes, some were in portrait orientation, some landscape. But all of them sported brightly-colored paper flowers and the striking image of "Miss Talullah".
Miss Talullah
Before you ask about the lovely, buxom beauty featured on the front...ISN'T SHE GLORIOUS? I ran across her image somewhere deep on the internet. It was pure, unmitigated serendipity that I found her. I literally laughed, no, I GUFFAWED when I first saw her. The original image is in sepia tone (as was customary for the time period--as I estimate to be around the turn of the century judging by her attire). The photo was in a sad state. It was terribly faded and filled with scratches, darker mold spots, and various flecks and bits that rendered it difficult to really see any detail.

That's when I stepped in with Photoshop and painstakingly restored her to her loveliness that you see here. I call her "Miss Talullah"...that is what I named her. It is an Anglican derivation of an old Irish name that means "lady of abundance". I would have loved to have met this dear woman and learned her story. I cannot even imagine going through life with "endowments" such as hers.  Bless you, Miss Talullah, for being brave enough to sit for this photograph, and for having (what must have been) a sense of humor the size of your...um... heart.

Now, if you remember, our guest of honor is a young lady. Very young. Preschool young. I didn't think this was an appropriate invitation to send her, so I made one designed just for her. I posted it a week or so ago as my House Mouse and Friends GDT assignment (Guest Design Team). It's a simple card (I wanted it to withstand being handled by a preschooler).

As I posted previously, this is a House Mouse stamp which I colored with my Polychromos pencils. It's a double-duty card! Multitasking for the win!

I also decided to create coordinating name tags for all our guests in the same style as the invite. I know that at "proper" teas people don't wear name tags. But who ever said I was proper? They all featured Miss Talullah in a rainbow of colors (except for Andrea's--hers featured the Gruffies bear from her invitation). I placed them on a doily-covered glass serving plate (with an antique bird figurine as guardian) and set them in the foyer. And, did you notice? Not only did I arrange them in spectrum order, I coordinated the pin heads with the color of the tag. Nothing obsessive about me. I also made coordinating tented name placards for all the food... more on that in a future post.


Thank you for venturing out to Left Field!

Stay tuned for Part 3 -- The Decorations.


3 comments:

  1. Tallulah is certainly plushly upholstered.

    Fun invitations and display. I would have thought you would have embraced your inner anarchist and contrasted the colors of the pins with the print color. But then again, you're a Virgo, right?

    ReplyDelete

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